The Purging
by ivory tear
Summary: At present, Mikan and Natsume find themselves bound by their destiny... But are they also bound by their past lives? The truth about the origins of the academy unfolds... It seems like there's more to these two than what meets the eye.
1. Chapter 1: It begins

**Disclaimer Note: **In creating this story, I do not claim nor assume myself to have the right to own Gakuen Alice, or any of its character. I am only expressing myself in this fanfiction, like everybody else. :D So, this is by no means, to be associated with the original Gakuen Alice series, because... it is fiction. (hope I'm making myself clear... )

**Summary:**At present, Mikan and Natsume find themselves bound by their destiny... But are they also bound their past lives? The truth about the origins of the academy unfolds... It seems like there's more to these two than what meets the eye...

**Title:** The Purging

**P.S.:** I hope you like it!!! This is my first fanfic! At long last, it's published... :D

_This fanfiction is a tribute to Natsume Hyuga, Mikan Sakura and the other casts of Gakuen Alice..._

_(The following events written below occurred some centuries ago...)_

**Chapter 1: It begins **

It was a time where chaos and havoc ruled, spawned by an infinite abyss that reigned on people's hearts and the ones who had special powers were called upon in hopes to restore order.

They were a race possessing unique abilities which set them apart from the ordinary...

They were the people with Alices.

The skies were painted maroon, rinsing the earth with its bloody light and further added to the feel of mayhem suffocating the area.

There were just enough of them left standing...

The confrontation with the enemies had reduced their number and turned the grasslands into a battlefield of hell; everything had a cast of ruin embellished on its surface. And all throughout, the weary Alice wielders gradually felt the sense of loss inching into their skin; their foes had them outnumbered from the beginning and despite their effort, it just wasn't enough.

One by one they withdrew away to safety when the young woman with long, braided sienna hair saw this with growing alarm. She had been rending off the enemies' attack with her nullification alice for the last minute, and now she was seeing this... She stood on a boulder where everyone had a clear view of her.

"No! Everyone, we must not falter now..!" she cried, exasperated, "We are this world's remaining hope for a future. Everyone is counting on us to deliver peace and order from this endless turmoil... Please, let us all be united!"

But her words hung in silence as one by one, the Alice users departed. Filled with deep melancholy, she stared at them helplessly... She had an inkling that they were right for leaving; after all, this battle was for the sake of those who had maltreated them in the past as though they were the bane in society.

And yet a huge dominating part of her told that this wasn't right...

No matter how ill they were, it still was not right to abandon them like sheep to be slaughtered. It was a humane inclination embedded deep within her conscientious that made her stay.

They must fight... She has to convince them.

"Everyone!" she shouted at the diminishing crowd and they turned and stopped, caught by the fire in her voice.

She began, "I am aware of this grudge against these people outside our realm, and how they've been unkind to us... Yet all of us come from the same shell!" she emphasized strongly, "To abandon them like this would be abandoning our own kind. You must reconsider!"

"Hmpf! Yeah, and become their pawns again. You must be crazy." a man said, almost scoffing at her.

Another one called out, "They've used us like anchors to hold their kingdom above ground while we stay submerged in abject submission, available at their beck and call. And now it's up to us to save their hides?! Preposterous! I've had enough of this slavery!" he concluded, and walked away.

"You, of all people should know that, Mischa." one of the mob chided. She recognized him as a friend, but now his features were marked with every bit of disappointment in it. He proceeded, "We're nothing but chess pieces, available at their disposal..."

"We chose to be lenient and loyal, yet what has that cost us? The very freedom of our kind!"

"Yeah, I'm living my own life!"

Others joined in, each one having their own reprisal. It was no use... Few had the undying devotion she possessed.

Yet she tried again, unwilling to submit herself to the defeat of her own conviction, "No, we mustn't give up!" but only to realize that they were no longer listening; their hearts were elsewhere. They disappeared from sight into the fiery skies up north, far enough for her voice not to reach their defiant ears. The weight of their leave finally dawned on Mischa, and she sagged into a boulder in a sitting position, apparently drained and hopeless… Everything they fought for was for naught. They gave up, and now hope was as bleak and derelict as it was a moment ago when they had fought with credence.

"_It's over…" _she was grieving to herself when a familiar voice rung from behind.

"And who said anything about giving up?"

A tall, handsome, well-built young man with raven-black hair stood behind, among many others she recognized. They all looked exhausted and weary, but the hint of a smile was present on their faces, as if they were glad to be back.

"Ayne!" Mischa thought she was never glad to see anyone before.

Ayne gave her a boyish grin, "Don't be stupid. We won't leave you behind out here, looking every bit as foolish..." he started, and went ahead to take care of things, "You should very well be aware of the situation before you marched about, trying to intimidate everyone." he said in an almost chiding tone. Yet Mischa knew that was not possible; he was known for his dreaded fire alice and also for his unwavering calm... For that, he was known to be perilous. He was only worried for her, that's all. She glanced at the wheat-colored hair young man as if to affirm her notion and he nodded back in silence.

The raven-haired man was fussing with the equipments unnecessarily, trying in vain to appear busy as if to mask the emotions that brew underneath his façade.

"Not all the alice wielders think as you do. They've got their grudges held on them... Unlike you." he paused and placed his blazing crimson eyes on her hazel ones, and she noticed they were filled with weary deliberation. Mischa had a feeling that he was not very keen about her stay…even came back merely for the safety of her countenance and not of his own bidding at all. He continued in his same blank quality of a tone, not giving away any hint of emotion.

"Their leaving only means the natural thing to do."

Mischa felt a nerve twitch somewhere on her face as she sensed his sarcasm despite his level gaze, and replied quite haughtily, "And you think this is unnatural?"

But the young man just walked aside, not willing himself to fall bait to the pangs of her fury apparent. He knew full well the matter would merely escalate to episodes of ranting again if he infuriated her more, like she usually does. So he placed his hands in the pockets of his pants and stared at the bloody sky.

"It's human nature." he said in his matter-of-factly voice in reply but rather than dismissing the topic, it only irritated her more.

But she knew she'll have to deal with that later. Right now...

Mischa, the nullification alice wielder, eyed her companions who opted to return and a feeling of overbearing happiness swept over her. They chose to come back regardless of the danger they knew they would be facing and she was so glad...

With renewed vigor, she called out to them, "Everyone, let's do our best!" and they shouted back with optimism. She let her gaze drift to the skies in different hues of red from the fires and destruction that was abundant all around, and somehow she knew.

The real battle has just begun.

**- o -**

_Hours later…_

The remaining alice people felt their strength oozing out from them as they fought the oppressors, and with that came the feeling of their resolve weakening... They really were outnumbered, and in their condition it was only a matter of time before the enemies take over.

And then, all would be lost.

But they fought still, for Mischa was there, doing what she can, propelling them with her endless vitality and sense of optimism. Thus they fought the battle that seemed to have no end.

**- o -**

During the battle, Mischa noticed Ayne was evidently exhausted but every time she tells him, he shrugs it off. And they got into one of their fights. They were having a screaming fest and it was not until an attack came that drew their attention away.

"Watch out!" Mischa nullified an incoming attack that should have hit the whirling fire-alice wielder, and gave him a knowing smile, "You only live once you know." And Ayne was thinking why he had never told her that it was her smile that kept him living through... That she was the boon of his existence, and he would never have gone out of his shell without her. But the circumstances of his life prevailed and he shut his thoughts to himself as he watched Mischa dancing along to attend to the others, immersed in her little victory over him.

Suddenly, a twinge of overbearing intuition gripped him that for a moment his mind was freed from all thoughts except for the approaching danger beheld in his mind. Something was coming. He sensed it. His trained instincts were honed to the point of needle sharpness that he didn't have to strain his ears and sight to know what it was.

His sight was automatically drawn upwards to the sky and true enough there were the inevitable descent of volleys of fire cascading down Mischa's path...

She was too lost in her own exultation that she didn't see it.

Shouts were coming from their comrades in a last minute attempt to ward off what would have been a fated tragedy for the sienna-haired lady...

"The belligerent fool..." he muttered under his breath and swiftly strode to her place, closing their distance. All his agility and vigor flooded out in a sudden rush when there should've been none left after the grueling battle, and it was all sparked by the recognition of his love's immediate peril. He would risk his life a hundred times over if it would save her… This was one of those times, and he would concede to a hundred more if need be.

Before Mischa was even aware of his presence skidding to a halt before her, a big blast of fire shot out of Ayne's outstretched hand and collided with the incoming fire ball, sending sparks into the air. The fires battled for supremacy, neither submitting to the other, until finally Ayne's growing fire defeated it.

The last of his strength poured upon that single drive to propel the fire, the immediate strain hammered into his body like an impact and he collapsed on Mischa's, limp and thoroughly depleted.

The woeful incident sluggishly sunk itself into Mischa's consciousness, and her reaction time was all she could bring out.

But even in the flurry of events, she was aware of Ayne...

"Ayne... No... You just---" her face was streaked with terror as she realized what he had just done for her sake.

She was aware… She was always well aware of the limitations of his fire alice, and for that reason she always felt as though she would lose him any moment. That fact combined to make her feel clingy to the young man, and was more quarrelsome than necessary, all the while hiding in that veil of annoyance her true feelings for him, which only until now was given full recognition.

_He was going to die._

"Don't... you dare dance around... in the middle of the battle again... you fool..." came his croak of a reply, and Mischa burst into helpless tears, the last of her façade broken by his appearance… He looked every bit like a dying man. The fire in him had wilted away from the force he exerted and it was evident in his pallor. She cradled him, not knowing what to say, while crying.

His strength was oozing away and it was almost palpable she truly felt him wasting away...

It can't be! He mustn't die...! she thought fiercely.

"Ayne…" she cried desperately, "Please don't die Ayne…!"

The young man gave her a weak smile in reply one last time, the eternal moment when they looked back at each other and all the emotions they had unveiled and guileless, before his hands fell limp from hers and along with it his whole being.

Mischa stared back in shock when the impact finally registered itself.

_All their time together… _

Memories that can never be reenacted once more…

He was gone forever and it was broken by this single act that cut away the privilege of a lifetime…

Her lifetime.

"Ayne...No…" she whispered when it finally unleashed out off her in big waves as reality infused its irrevocable turn of the tide into her denying self.

"No---!"

At that moment, a field of blue ethereal light swept across the surroundings, engulfing everything in its path... It encircled and lapped the tainted battlefield, like a violent tsunami, covering everything in its pure blue glow…

And then the two vanished. All was silent except for the fires that raged from afar.

Chapter 1

fin

"_Ayne" is pronounced as (Ayn)_

**PLS REVIEW!!!** I don't really know what to make of this; it is my 1ST fanfic...

SO, don't be shy, tell me. :D reviews, comments, suggestions, those things... PLS DO:D Thank you!


	2. Chapter 2: Beguiling emotions

**Chapter 2: Beguiling Emotions**

"_It's that strange feeling again..."_

The light was slanting through the trees and the morning was crisp and savory in the Northern forest as Mikan crept behind a tree, spying a figure from afar.

It was Natsume, reading his usual manga under that tree by the drinking fountain.

He did not notice her...

Not yet.

She realized in the past that she must take this opportunity just to spy on him; she knew conversations with this guy was a bad idea.

"_His features look bland enough when he's not mad---even boyish. And yet... Why is this feeling getting stronger?" _she thought, annoyed,_ "What is with him anyway?"_

She tiptoed to get a better view of him when Natsume suddenly drew his eyes away from his manga to her spot, and she slid back in a flash, frozen with anxiety. But he soon returned to his reading as if nothing happened. Mikan sighed deeply to herself.

"_That was a close one." _She thought. Dauntless as ever, the nullification alice wielder continued to watch him from afar.

Meanwhile, sitting under the tree, Natsume was thinking, "_...It's that annoying idiot again..."_ he sighed inwardly. This was getting utterly annoying. "_The nut must be thinking I'm as dumb as she is for not noticing... Well, she'll be thinking otherwise soon..."_

Mikan was so immersed in her own thoughts she didn't notice her target had softly slid away.

"_I must be careful... Maybe I'll try talking to him... I just know he had a bit of kindness underneath all that crude front... Maybe it could just work! I can do this! I won't give up! I---"_

"Hey, cherry-patterned."

That dull, listless voice... Mikan recognized it even if it was a frog talking. She was crouching low on her knees, frozen in place when she felt herself working up a rage.

Natsume had caught her spying... And he had peeked at her---again. That was enough to send Mikan upright and glowered at the raven-haired boy who stood by the tree with his hands in his pockets---

As cool as if nothing out of the ordinary happened.

A ring of fire casted by the fire alice wielder surrounded her but she deftly waved it off with her hand, nullifying the fire and vanquishing it in an instant. Mikan felt her irk growing.

"Natsume... You per-ver-ted MORON!" she bellowed at him, fuming inwardly.

But the raven-haired boy just stood back, placed his hands behind his head and deliberately ignored her.

"Hmph. I'm not the one who's stupid enough to come crouching about with her underpants exposed..." he muttered, looking at her from the corner of his eyes.

"What?! But that was---" she stammered, only to be cut out.

"Tch... Save your dumb excuses. It was evident what you were doing." he said accusingly and turned to leave.

"No, wait!! It...It..." the girl was blabbering again, unable to blurt out the words in her thoughts in haste. Natsume, the fire alice wielder, was always the conclusive guy who tended to ignore those who were not worth his time or attention. And it was all happening so fast for her shocked mind to register what was happening.

He waved a hand from the distance, as if dismissing her and fairly heard him say, "Trash talk..." before he was out of earshot.

"N...Na..." she tried to say, convulsing with pent-up rage and annoyance.

Meanwhile on the nearby bushes, just beyond the drinking fountain crouched Hotaru and Ruka.

"I told you they were here..." Hotaru barely glanced at Ruka at her side, "That would be 40 rabbits..."

Ruka sighed and reluctantly handed her the payment but he did not take his eyes off from the scene taking place just ahead. They were both witnessing the spectacle with bland interest; it was the fourth time now. When they both heard Natsume's name resounding, Ruka felt a stab of uncertainty.

"Hey, Hotaru... Are we just going to leave them like that?" he asked the invention alice wielder beside him, a tint of concern apparent in his voice.

The raven-haired girl faced him and said in her same dull voice, deprived of any emotion, "Why? Do you wish to interfere..? Maybe you'd like to witness a scene you're not supposed to..."

From the distance, a burned tree fell to the ground, crashing with a loud audible crack. It came from the direction where the two was.

That finally got the spectators going.

**- o -**

Meanwhile, Natsume had torched a tree to block Mikan's path and keep him from following him.

"_This can't get more annoying than this..." _he felt himself sweating a bit.

But somehow, miraculously, she had found a way to get around and shouted after him, "Wait----! Natsume..!!"

Mikan rounded the corner and was rushing toward him too fast, and the brakes on her feet were off as she crashed into him, sending them both to the ground. When she regained her senses, she found herself staring into his deep crimson eyes and suddenly her heart skipped a beat. Natsume blinked back in surprise as he stared back into her deep hazel ones.

_"Her eyes... They are..."_

A thud sounded from behind; it was Ruka, who fainted. Hotaru had her hand clapped on her mouth in an amused or shocked expression; it was hard to tell. For a moment, Mikan found herself thinking about "unpleasant situations" and what to do when it happened. It was a spur-of-the-moment thought and the nullification wondered what could've linked it…

The couple finally realized their position; Mikan was on top with her legs astride him and Natsume's hand was around the small of her back. It was the newest position added to their "accidental coincidences" and Natsume felt baffled about this... So was Mikan, with her face flushing.

The pigtailed-hair girl was thinking the same and was finally answered in her thought about the "unpleasant situations" cue. The mind can be such a predicting piece of slob sometimes.

What made it phenomenal was that it looked every bit of voluntary… And that upset Natsume more than the realization that Hotaru had just taken a snapshot of them in that position and the pictures and news would inevitably spread soon.

Even then, he was aware of his relentless self-control and his austere calm in the most perilous situations... But this was beyond him.

An arm around Mikan... in the most passionate manner ever possible... and it was voluntary! He stared at the annoying girl who was smiling sheepishly back at him as if trapped in an uncomfortable situation and wondered what she could've done to make him do that unconsciously...

Perhaps there was something on his face, because Mikan was looking at him strangely.

"Natsume? You ok? ...You look---"

"I'm fine." he replied curtly and started to walk away. He expected Mikan to follow him again but she stayed where she was...

Which was another surprise.


	3. Chapter 3: Misguided thoughts

**Chapter 3: Misguided thoughts**

Meanwhile, up upon a tree branch shaded from view stood Persona, who had viewed the entire scenario with rapt attention. He smiled softly as he saw Natsume walking away in a foul mood. This was getting interesting... He vanished into thin air as soon as Natsume felt his presence and left him as confused as ever.

- o -

The Academy's invisible gossip wire was soon buzzing with the latest, hottest gossip around: Natsume, the most feared and sought for, was proven to be making out in the Northern forest--- and in a very passionate way, with a nobody, annoying Mikan Sakura. The snapshot picture proved it all. It was enough to have the Natsume-Ruka fanclub plotting schemes to behead Mikan... But most of all, they wanted to verify it straight from him.

But Natsume was nowhere to be found.

"He's been gone all day. He didn't even attend to any of the classes..." Ruka confided to Mikan that afternoon, who took it with the same concern.

She was thinking, _"Well, naturally I wouldn't be concerning myself with anything about that perverted moron, but... Somehow, I feel the one to be blamed. I didn't really expect him to put his arm around like that, as if---he liked it---But... I have to find him... maybe even tell him of this weird feeling."_

"Yuu, have you seen Natsume anywhere?"

"No..."

And Mikan asked around, followed by stares and murmurs, to which she deliberately ignored. One thing was burned in her mind; she have to find him.

And then... And then what? Mikan knew too well that he wasn't the type to willingly open up, kiss and tell.

Certainly not.

But she has to try... Break it out off him if she has to.

**- o -**

Time passed by, and then it was midnight. The full moon loomed across the starry night sky, basking the academy in its ethereal glow. On the roof sat a lone boy with raven-black hair, contemplating events he cannot contemplate.

There has to be a basis for his actions and yet he cannot find it... And so, he contented himself to letting the night breeze play with his hair, caressing his face. He suddenly felt so confused that for a minute he had let his guard down.

That's when Mikan crept onto the roof, clumsily making her way up and making a lot of noise, but Natsume didn't even stir. When Mikan saw him after having searched for so long, she could barely contain her joy.

"Natsume..!!" she cried out and would've roused the entire elementary division when she stopped short upon seeing the poignant air exuding from him.

"Natsume..." She started towards him, uncertain what to say.

He barely glanced at her when he said, "Oi, polka-dot panties... You sure took your time getting here with those clumsy feet of yours..."

_"Natsume... Somehow, I know he's feeling gloomy despite his tease."_ Mikan sat a distance from him and then thought to take it out off him. "Cheer up! It's not a big deal if everyone knows you---held an arm around me right! So, it's okay---" she went on, babbling cheerily.

But then he remembered something, a notion that was so strong...and then a thought sprung on the surface.

Natsume abruptly closed their distance, reached swift hands to her chin and took it closed to his face.

"Wha-What?! I.." she was too flustered too even form words.

"Your eyes..." Natsume mumbled, staring at her almost inquisitively, not giving away anything. Their faces were already inches apart and Mikan let out a gasp, not certain what to do. She was held in a trance by his tantalizing crimson eyes that she was immobilized in place.

"Na-Natsume..!" she tried to say.

"They're the color of mud." he said with the same flat voice and let her go, which doubled its insult-ometer and Mikan felt herself boiling up to a rage.

_"It's not it... Then what was wrong? What?" _Natsume was thinking when a sudden weakness assaulted him and halted Mikan from lounging into one of her attacks.

He was suffering the effects of his missions again, and this time it got him bad.

Mikan was frantic, "Natsume, hold on..! I'll call for help!"

"...No... Don't..." he managed to say before he got drained and fell unconscious on Mikan's lap.


	4. Chapter 4: Fatewoven paths

**Chapter 4: Fate-woven paths**

Natsume was totally unconscious when they brought him to the hospital's private ward, and Mikan couldn't help the anxiety worming up inside her… and she didn't know why except that he was her partner and it seemed natural. But it didn't sound very convincing.

Unable to decide for the best, she planned on watching over him, and then announce the news to Ruka, Hotaru and everyone else the next day…she wanted to do so, anyway.

"_Seeing him sleep like that… One would never guess he had such a dark background…" _

Mikan smiled to herself as she sat beside his bed. It was already one A.M. in the morning and she didn't realize how tired she was until she broke a yawn that made her jaws crack.

"_Maybe…" _Mikan smiled to Natsume, "Goodnight… Natsume" she murmured, lay by his side and fell asleep with her hands resting on his.

**- o -**

The following morning, Mikan awoke to find that her chair was at the farthest corner from Natsume's bed, and that her neck and several parts of her body developed cramps from sleeping in an uncomfortable position. She sat up groggily, fighting the cramps and exercising her screaming limbs, then wondered who could've moved her…

There were dozens of assorted flower bouquets around the room and presents by the bedside table… Then, that could only mean—

The door opened and in came Hotaru with her same dull expression.

"The fans were here first thing in the morning when they heard about Natsume." She started without preamble.

"H-Hotaru..!" Mikan managed, "You knew? But it happened in the middle of the night and---"

"My Spybot." Hotaru interjected, pulling out a small device from her pocket. It had the resemblance of an octopus but had tripod as legs and when she released it flew to the air. "Invention # 61: The Spybot. With its sensitive radioactive radars, it hovers around the academy checking for possible scoops of the day, and records it. Scoops are available for only 30 rabbits a piece." she finished in her same monotonous dialect.

"_So that's how they knew…" _Mikan thought dully, but Hotaru was studying her friend closely, as if she knew something going on in her heart.

"…The news is already on the academy, but the fan girls will be back by afternoon yet." She looked at Mikan, as if smiling but Mikan knew that wasn't possible, "Goodluck." Hotaru exited as soon as she came. While Mikan had time to think about she said, the door burst open and Ruka appeared, panting, his eyes huge. When he saw her, he seemed to gain a bit of himself but the air of his urgency hung around him. "Have you seen Hotaru?"

Mikan nodded, puzzled, "Yeah, she just left."

Ruka seemed to have cursed low to himself, but when he looked at her he seemed embarrassed. "Mikan, can you do me a favor?"

"Anything." She smiled.

The blonde-haired boy glanced at Natsume with concern in his eyes, "Pls. watch over Natsume… I'll be back---"he flicked the door a hateful look, "for a while."

The girl couldn't help asking, "Why, Ruka?"

But he blushed furiously, "N-Nothing..!" and stormed out the door before Mikan could fire a follow-up question.

She wondered what Hotaru have to do with it…

On the bed, Natsume stirred. He was already awake.

"_He looks as snobby as ever…"_ she thought, somewhat amused.

"Was that Ruka just now?" he asked.

"Yeah…"

Uncomfortable silence.

"I'm sorry about what happened…"

"Tch, don't be stupid. It's not your fault."

"What? But you were gone all day and I thought---

"What other idiocy have you stored in that brain of yours? Have you forgotten that I'm having those missions?"

That explained everything. Mikan couldn't imagine she had been hoping all along… No, she was assuming too much.

"Oh, right… Thanks for reminding." she retorted sarcastically.

Another uncomfortable silence stretched and Natsume didn't seem the least bothered, unlike Mikan who looked like she was cringing on the corner, standing haplessly.

"Hey, Natsume…" she began awkwardly, "Do you feel anything strange?"

"Other than you in here, none." He said tonelessly, but inside he was thinking, "_So she can feel it too…"_

"Why?" he added.

"…Uhm… I-I think I feel a strong attraction to you---"

Natsume was looking at her now with keen interest, a faint naughty smile on his lips.

"NO, not that kind of attraction!" she snapped, and couldn't believe just how far this boy's maliciousness stretched. She continued, earnest, "I just feel different about it…"

The fire alice wielder stared back at her blankly, then turned elsewhere, "Why don't you see Narumi?"

"_Oh that's right! Narumi-sensei, who had the alice of love pheromone! Why didn't I think of that?"_ Mikan was thinking when the door opened and in came Narumi, who heard at least the thought of it and said, "Yes, why not Mikan?" he smiled, and glanced at Natsume, who was still surprise at his abrupt arrival, "Why don't you come too, Natsume? I think you're well enough to get out of bed."

The boy only shrugged indifferently.

But there was something about Narumi's voice that was tinged with purpose… He knew behind that smile, he had something serious to talk about…

And it had to with them.


	5. Chapter 5: Remnants of the Past

**Chapter 5: Remnants of the past**

The halls leading to the Alice Academy's old library was spacious and lit by the enormous windows overlooking the grounds on their side. It had the musty feel of not having been visited for some time, and they tread its halls in silence as if afraid to disturb the quiet that seemed to undermine the entire place.

The library was situated in a separate building, between the Elementary division and Middle school division, which was quite a distance. It had the antique look of dwelling in a time that wasn't in its proportion, and its distance from any other buildings around made it appear remote, drawn back from the civilized world, its stone pathways long since weathered and unvisited.

Ever since the new library was created, the more vivid version of the old one that was freed from any possible excuse for hiding any of its secrets to the innocent students, the old library was closed and looked every bit of forlorn, except for the occasional elderly academy historians who come to visit to see an old note, thus the upkeep and maintenance of its valuables was kept regularly, if not seldom. But derelict as it may seem, it held its secrets inside its walls with the tenacity of a fevered enthusiast, unflinching against what the outside world may care.

"_And it's holding onto its secrets, till this very day…" _Natsume thought, looking at the archaic walls of the building. He had heard about the old library which kept the academy's priceless documents and among other things, but it wasn't much discussed, so few took notice even of its existence except that it was probably an old building from ages past. Nor did it interest him. But looking at it now, he supposed he would like to know just what part of the history they have been taught was kept hidden inside those walls…

**- o -**

They were walking along the hallways when Mikan thought it was time to tell Narumi her troubles….Besides, the quiet was unbearable to someone like her. Natsume was lagging far behind them, his hands behind his head as if nothing was troubling him so he couldn't possibly be within earshot on their conversation. But when she spoke, it was in a hush and she didn't even notice it.

"Narumi-sensei… I have this attraction to Natsume…" Mikan confided to her male blonde teacher, embarrassed and somewhat worried, "I just feel strange every time I'm near him these days…"

Narumi, however, took the tone the other way around and smiled at her amusingly, like one who would know its puppy-love when he sees it, "Oh, maybe you're in---"

"No! That's not it." Mikan was almost angry.

"Hmm, really?" for a moment, Narumi's tone and disposition changed into something serious, but kept his amused expression. "If I'm not mistaken, then… You two do have the connection." He finished, as if that explained everything.

"What?!" Mikan exclaimed loud enough not to care if Natsume heard.

"It's going on for so long now… and now that I remembered, it may be part of the reason why I paired you two as partners." He smiled simply. They were facing the great doors of the library now and he pushed it open. "Come, we'll see."

**- o -**

The library may be old as the sundial, but it certainly was enormous and majestic, Mikan thought as she gaped at the sight before and around her. Everything was in magnificence, and only the dust and musty smell indicated the place was old. The floor was of marble and the vast walls were lined medieval sculptures and frescoes of ages past embellished the entire library's length. Rows and columns of sturdy oak tables and chairs arranged in a circle formed most of the center, which was accentuated by a marble pillar that rose to the high domed ceiling towering above. The bookshelves were done like the pillars too, and it rose till high above the ceiling, occupying the library's surrounding area and other places. Mikan wondered how they could even reach the books over there, but the sight of some queer devices around stopped her. Maybe it was some kind of alice levitation device.

"It's this way… Please be careful not to touch anything. Even if this place is old, the alices cast on various places here are still functional." Narumi warned, eyeing Mikan as he led them toward a secluded area and passed through the marble pillar at the center. Mikan noticed a sculpture engraved there… It was a figure of a woman who had a blessedly-loving face… But before she could get immersed into it, Natsume came from behind.

"Oi, you'd better not get us into trouble again with that stupid brain of yours…"

"Shut up! I'm not!" she retorted heatedly, "I was just looking…"

"Well, you'd better just used your eyes…" and he walked away.

Then Mikan realized that she had nearly touched the sculpture, and she pulled away, embarrassed.

They came into a hidden corner of the library, where the shelves seemed to mark a dead end with its closed space. But when Narumi touched a panel on one of the shelves, it moved to the side revealing another room, just like in any mystery story. When they got in, however, the shelves shut back from behind, closing them in. Mikan panicked.

"It's just one of precaution measures installed…" Narumi smiled reassuringly, and the maroon curtains in the hidden room drew back as if welcoming them with the light that poured in, "See? We'll exit on another door, don't worry."

Mikan calmed down and looked around the room for the first time. It wasn't so bad… In fact, it appeared just like any other. Windows lined the walls that weren't covered by bookshelves, and the mid-morning light that poured in was fascinating in its radiance. But there were only two or three tables with chairs, as if the place was meant for a few people. The few chosen people, Mikan corrected herself.

"Narumi-sensei… This place is---"

"That's right. It's the most sacred threshold of the Academy information. Only the most privileged administrators and staffs of the academy can gain access to this place."

But the highlight was a huge tome, lying on marble slate of a table upon a dais. It had peripheral glow of archaic tidings stored beneath its covers. Narumi went to it and motioned Mikan and Natsume to join him.

"This is the tome of Legacy." He said in a conversational tone, "It holds many of the information the Academy has kept from the curriculum of history classes."

Natsume somewhat stirred in his calm disposition. So he was right… They were hiding other existence as well.

But Mikan was disturbed, just like any other innocent country bumpkin, "What? The Academy has a hidden history they didn't mention to us?"

Narumi nodded, "That's right."

"But why??"

"Because they're not as outspoken as you." Natsume answered her, but she ignored him, focusing on the tome before her. "Is it okay to view its contents?"

"Well, actually no." he looked at her in the eye, "Why don't you find out, Mikan? Go ahead and open it." His tone had a note of surety that eliminated her fears.

Mikan placed her hand on the tome and realized that it glowed at her touch. But there was something in it that made her feel as if it was meant for her… She touched the thick cover and easily lifted it, immediately sending tiny luminous sparks into the air. Beside her Narumi had a satisfied look on his face.

The first page had a hand-written lettering in it, "The Legacy…" Mikan read, and then flipped through the pages without thought. It was still crisp and robust, as if time had not worked its decaying effects on it, but it certainly was of the old quality type. Finally, Mikan turned to Narumi for explanation.

"As I've thought…" he smiled, "You've nullified the fortification alice, Mikan, and quiet easily at it." He sounded proud, as if it was expected.

Natsume somewhat had a bit of shock written in his face when he heard the mention of the fortification alice, but said nothing. Mikan gawked back at her teacher, uncomprehending.

"I've figured that if I mentioned it to you that the tome was sealed with the fortification alice, you won't have been able to work your nullification on it since you're concentrating on doing your best." He received Mikan's puzzled look in return, and he laughed a little, "Don't worry, I'll explain all the details when you know more about the real history of this school..."

**- o -**

"No one knows how people came to have alices…" Narumi begun as they sat on one the tables with the tome held open before them, and continued, "It says here that long ago, there emerged a conflict between the people with alices and those who didn't have.

They were all coexisting on the same land, but then the ordinary people grew insecure and threatened by them when they viewed the full coverage of their capabilities that soon they shunned them from their society.

However, some of the ordinary people joined the alice users on their exile, and for this they felt that they were being generous in giving up their kin. In fact, the alice people were truly grateful at this show of giving self for them that they begun offering them favors and help. But little do they know that an ulterior motive was at hand…

The alice people, were in fact so grateful that they failed to see that their powers were being exploited, that soon they became reliant on the non-alice people and begun to feed on their hands.

They became dependent on the ordinary people's influence and power to let them live on a land that scorned them… and they needed them enough to ignore their explicit exploitation, and no rebellion broke out. But the injustices continued unabated on the alice people's hearts.

Thus, when a war finally broke out lead by those who hated the alice people and their own kin, majority of the alice users decided to retreat at the heat of the battle and forsake the non-alice traitors to die. But a young woman named Mischa decided against it..." He paused, then, "Have you heard about Ayne and Mischa?" Narumi inquired.

"According to history, the alice user's Ayne and Mischa led to the key of founding the academy…" Natsume said tonelessly, as if reading by heart, "But they disappeared after the war and were never seen again."

"That's right." Narumi said gleefully, impressed, "You serve your title as honorable student well, Natsume." But the aloof boy just sat in silence, and that motioned Narumi to continue, "But did you know that Mischa had the nullification alice and Ayne had the fire alice?"

The expression he got was as expected: shock and bewilderment. He continued, "Together with Ayne and several other alice users, Mischa fought them off even when they were outnumbered… and won. But they vanished out-of-the-blue after the war ended. Some said they died…but there weren't enough evidence to justify that. The ordinary people who had sided with the alice users were so grateful to them that, as thanks, they decided to build a haven for them and their kind. With the conflict momentary resolved and forgotten, the haven soon became an academic institution that educated alice users and at the same time served as their sanctuary. But the notion still overruled: the non-alice people owned the academy and the alice users takes the place as head of it. Soon, the non-alice people, who were unique and influential in every way, stepped into the government and started to back Alice Academy, in exchange of their help." Narumi halted significantly, letting it sink in, knowing too full well what it was registering on these young academy students before him: that history reenacted itself and they were being used now as they had been in the past. But he knew it was different now, and it was because of Mischa and Ayne.

The two couldn't believe what they just heard. This was what those history lessons had kept from them… But for what reason did they eliminated the fact that Mischa had the nullification alice and Ayne had the fire alice? Mikan was the one who spoke this thought aloud, to which Narumi shrugged off.

"I don't know why… But I presumed it was because the academy knew someone with those alices would soon arrive here, and---"he halted abruptly when a thought caught his words, and Mikan saved him the trouble of revelation with her constant curiosity and questioning on the matter.

"I just remembered sensei. You said that only nullification alice wielders like me can have access to the tome, but you—"

"Yes, that's right." He interrupted, "Only the Nullification alice can break the fortification seal, and also of the wielder itself… A special friend of mine broke the seal ten years ago, here, on this same spot." He paused, and his eyes were glazed as if reminiscing, then, "It was a favor… He brought me with him when we opened the tome and let me read it…" Narumi was looking at Mikan, "It was to pass the belief… onto students like you. 'To believe in a different kind of truth' he had said then…"

A completely baffled look came over Mikan's face. Natsume sat silently beside, his eyes closed in contemplation. It was hard to tell his emotions from that posture, or if he was even feeling at all.

"_I wondered who that special friend was?" _Mikan was thinking, but instead what she asked was, "But what if all the nullification and fortification alice wielders die and the seal was cast on the tome?? Then no one will get to pass that knowledge! The tome will be closed forever…" she was truly whining.

"You really are an idiot." Natsume muttered suddenly. So he's been listening all along. "They won't cast a seal on one of their most protected and valued information if they knew they would perpetually lose track of it."

"Precisely. The tome was created solely for the purpose of letting nullification alice wielders know."

"But why??" Mikan persisted.

Narumi shrugged, "I have my assumptions… And I've not confirmed it to the council yet. Besides, I have no reason to." He flipped the pages of the tome and stopped in a picture.

It was a young man and woman shown sideways in a daring posture, as though charging at an unseen enemy. On the background were other men and women. They all looked like they were waging a war.

"The two in front are Mischa and Ayne…" Narumi pointed, "But let's take a closer view on them."

He turned another page and this time there were full-page half-body portraits of the two on each.

Mischa had a sweet, mystic beauty. She has the face of a young woman who carried a dignified, untainted ease about her and a ghost of a smile formed around her lips, which looked as though she wore that perpetually and untarnished through the ages. She had soft, determined eyes that were light hazel in color, and even from the portrait they looked alive. They were contrastingly similar with Mikan's. Ayne, on the other hand, looked slightly mature and had staid, firm features, like Natsume. He also had crimson eyes, but only deeper, and his raven-black hair fell freely just until his nape. Yet he had no alice control devices on his ears and was noticeably good-looking. Both couples appeared to be around age 20.

"Mikan definitely got Mischa's eyes." Narumi grinned appreciatively.

Mikan blushed, "Really?" she sounded flattered enough when Natsume broke in,

"But she has a bosom." He muttered expressionless, pointing on the portrait and Mikan felt herself boiling up to a rage again. "Why you!! ...Well, Ayne looks way better than you." She said, sticking her tongue out.

But the boy just crossed his hands behind his head and muttered under his breath, "Hmph. So? They would've looked like us when they were 10 anyway..."

Narumi grinned at the two fighting; he was sure of it now. Their presence here made his notion clearer, and just to mark it, Mikan asked, "But sensei, what do you think this has to do with this attraction?" she threw Natsume a disgusted look, "If you mean that we are reincarnations---"

"Perhaps, Mikan. Maybe you two were direct descendants of Mischa and Ayne, considering you have their alices and looks. But then that would mean that they lived after the war." He shrugged and appeared defeated, "I'm sorry, I can't really be sure of anything with just this visual preference. But I assure you Mikan, whatever that feeling is, it will pass." He patted her on the head reassuringly.

"_I sure hope so…"_

**- o -**

They already went outside the hidden room, closing it behind them and started to make their way out the library. Mikan was concerned at the tome left unsealed, and Narumi calmed her by saying that the fortification alice wielder who casted the spell would know it was broken and just seal it afterwards. And she wondered who that wielder was… Probably someone old. But she had other concerns to attend to.

"Sensei… So, you knew the academy was taking advantage of us. Yet why did you tolerate..? Why did you become a teacher?" sadness rippled in Mikan's voice as she asked.

"The academy benefits from the alice users, and in exchange they are given a place where they belong." He turned to look at Mikan, "I have my reasons… I believe the academy was built to provide a place for people like us and protect us from others… They may be using us but for the mere purpose of contributing to the world and make it a better place to live…" Narumi's voice trailed off inspirationally, and Mikan couldn't help but admire him.

"So, we're like heroes…" Mikan mumbled, fascinated.

But Narumi shrugged, "Perhaps. But others do not always think as you do." He placed his eyes on her, "That's why I chose to remain in the academy and become a teacher to instill this belief so often misunderstood…"

Mikan listened, her once ample knowledge growing. How everyone had misunderstood… But now she knew, she could begin with that. But still, there were questions yet on her inquisitive mind.

"But the ordinary people… those who hated the alice people. Do they still pursue us?"

From ahead, Natsume grunted as if disgusted.

"As can be seen in the present situation, perhaps they still do. But more often it is the graduates of the Academy who wish to do it harm… Even without the academy's past, they can feel the exploitation going around, and it's not as lenient as it was long ago. Take Mourei Reo for example. He's just one of the many graduates who feel that the academy must be destroyed." his gaze drifted to Natsume ahead of them, "That's why we have the Black Ops, those assigned to eliminate the academy's enemies."

"But the Black Ops… They're not all that bad, right?" she sounded mutually concerned, "Who are they fighting anyway?"

And their gaze automatically landed on Natsume, as if he'd better answer that. The boy shrugged, nonchalant, but appeared like he does not want to answer.

"The academy's enemies… Sometimes, even of the government." His tone changed dramatically from placid to pure hatred as he spat at the words, "There's no other easy way than to let people with super powers do the job, right?" he sounded almost sarcastic, and he walked away, leaving them behind.

Mikan looked up at Narumi, concern apparent on her features, and he will soon realize that that concern was serious and deep.

"It's the Mafia…"

"Who are they?" Mikan inquired.

Narumi's features darkened when he replied, "Nothing can describe them except that they're the ultimate definition of 'villains'… They're powerful, ruthless and tough." He looked at her eyes brimming with concern and felt sorry for her, "Natsume's missions often consist of dealing with Mafia's, so pls. understand him."

"Natsume…" Mikan looked at the distance, thinking of him…when a thought formed around her head…and slowly took shape. She bid her sensei farewell and followed after Natsume, who already left the library and was nowhere in sight.


	6. Chapter 6: the Unyielding Heart

**Chapter 6: The Unyielding Heart**

Natsume still recalled it lucidly: It was a few days ago, when in a moment of trepidation and weak from his continuous use of alice, he had taken off his alice-control device mask and earrings to unleash a strong amount of his fire at the throng of armed Mafia surrounding him on all sides.

They were all fried alive and still twitching, with the smell of corpse filling the air in its humidity and he had collapsed on the ground, his energy thoroughly depleted.

Yet he had smelled the gravity of his act as he laid heaving gasps on the ground; he had just slaughtered a pack of men to save his own life... It was a strange feeling, having killed someone for your sake in such a brutal way... It was right and yet, even to him it felt wrong.

He felt bad at it for reasons he could not comprehended… and yet even as he remembered those men who did more horrible acts than what he did without even the benefit of conscience plaguing their soul, he wondered just how they could cope with it. However, as missions gave way concerning more of the Mafia lot taken into his hands, he suddenly felt an immense hatred towards them such as he had never known. And from then on, this was what fueled the drive he possessed every time it was needed to dispatch them and grew ruthless and numb each time.

But there was one vivid memory that incessantly assails him these days; it was of a young woman whom he thought was caught by his fire during one of his missions… Natsume didn't know how she could've gotten there inside the factory, but she was there all right, going up with the flames that devoured her whole being every second of it. He had stood back, not sure if he intended to rescue her, when she had vanished into the fire and he never saw her again….except her eyes. It was as lucid as if they stood right in front of each other.

They were the same with Mikan's.

Now as he reminisce everything of his yesterday's cocktail mixture of tragedies and confusing situations, he felt so weary all of a sudden.

"Natsu---me..!! Wait…!" Mikan's voice calls after him, ringing along the halls like a cat on fire.

He figured he'd have no choice but to cater to her or risk her voice resounding in his ears soon enough.

But he was on the edge now.

He didn't care about that as he recalled how the academy had so ruthlessly pushed him to work on his missions, and most of all, to dispatch people whom he loathe with every fiber of his being. No, they didn't give a damn about him except their own interest and motives.

"Go away." Natsume muttered. There was a sharp note on his voice that Mikan failed to notice.

Mikan staggered to a halt just a walking distance from him, her eyes filled with genuine concern, "Natsume, if the Mafia is the reason why you're keeping this darkness holed up inside you… Then---"

The raven-haired boy shot her a panged look, almost hatred.

"What do you know? You're just one of the many idiots who act as though you know every bit of my life..!" He sounded so filled with contempt that Mikan stood back, shock filling her in waves. It was the first time she ever saw him this furious.

Mikan tried again, regaining herself, trying to make him understand what it is she wanted to happen.

"I do know!" she cried, "Because---!" Because she cares for him. And more than that, she---but Mikan didn't blurt it out. Even as outspoken as she was, she couldn't tell him just how much he mattered…

"Leave me alone…" Natsume's eyes were shaded when he turned his back on her, "...I don't need you..." The last phrase was filled with such icy, firm deliberateness that stunned the girl in place.

She couldn't believe it even came from his lips…Couldn't believe how cold he was to her! Trembling with emotion, the first pile of unbidden tears welled up in her eyes as she clenched her fist in a death grip and shouted after Natsume's diminishing figure.

"Natsume…! You moron!!" Mikan ran away with tears pouring from her cheeks, her last bout of audacity wilted away.

When Mikan's footfalls echoed away into nothingness, the raven-haired boy's lips contoured into a faint, despairing smile, and he halted in his walk, thinking:

"_Good… Just ran away. Get away from me… It would be better for the both of us. I can't involve anyone…most of all, you." _And then he realized that he could never tell her just how he feels alive when they get into one of their fights, how her smile lights up the darkest corners of his heart, and how her loud, annoying voice can even sound music to his ears…

Filled with vitality…Filled with life.

That was Mikan. She had imbued in him the life he lacked and he couldn't afford that it will be stolen from her because of her mere association with him. No, not ever...

"_It's better this way… Mikan…" _somewhere on his face, a glistening tear fell from his cheek…

**- o -**

It was afternoon on the academy grounds…

The light from the setting sun cast a prism of golden colors that bathe the surroundings with its glow. Everything was in stillness as the students prepare themselves for the night and only the setting sun showed signs of movements on the deserted grounds.

Somewhere about the sky, an eagle carrying Ruka can be seen, his eyes darting to and fro in such a manic manner, as if scouting an army of ants on the ground below.

And then he finally saw his target.

He glided his eagle onto the playground where Hotaru Imai was, staring obsolete on the golden sunset yet seeing nothing.

Ruka alighted and went over to Imai's place, when she spoke in her monotonous tone.

"The pictures and films are already delivered to your room."

Ruka gawked back at her, thoroughly soaked with shock. While he could digest what she said, Imai faced him, a hint of concern on her placid face, "Have you seen your friend?"

The blonde boy, stunned, finally managed coherent thought, "You mean Natsume? He's in his room… Why?" it was unusual for Imai to even ask about Natsume… but this? It was phenomenal.

"Mikan is gone… I haven't seen her in her room..." she placed her indigo eyes on his blue ones, "Usually she'd be there, if not anywhere…"

So that was it… Ruka thought. In a moment of anxiety, the girl decided to spare him the embarrassment and delivered the pictures and films, while she could focus on finding her best friend. Ruka smiled in spite of himself; he didn't know this girl even had a trace of kindness in her.

"Don't worry. I'll help you find her." He grinned.

Hotaru looked at him, suddenly pleasant, "Thank you, Ruka."

Now, that caught him like a blow on the solar plexus, and for a moment he stood stunned, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of the water. He wasn't even aware that his face had gone the darkest shade of red, and he looked every bit of a flustered boy as he groped for words.

"U—uh… I-I-It's nothing…" he was stumbling over his own words in haste.

"_The poor boy…" _Hotaru was thinking as she smiled to herself. It was better if he didn't know, she thought. Something about Ruka just now pleased her, and she didn't intend to ruin that.

Especially now that Mikan ran off from the academy.

**- o -**

It was just after noon when she found out.

Hotaru planned schemes so that Mikan and Natsume could talk to themselves privately. She had noticed, or rather perceived Mikan's distress; it was coming off her in waves, and like radar she detected it and diagnosed it as a case of "love distress".

There was no other explanation, she was sure of it.

Being her childhood bestfriend since they were young was enough testimony to that…

So, she set them up and opted to get back to them later. But just that afternoon when she came to drop by and visit her room, she wasn't there…

And that's when Hotaru saw the letter lying on her bedside table.

Hotaru had read it with a blank face that was soon rippled with concern. The letter indicated that she ran away…and was in a far more dangerous situation than she thought she was.

So Hotaru postponed her propaganda on Ruka, got a copy of the pictures and films, then delivered the originals to his room, just so he won't chase her while she finds a way to bring back her idiot of a best friend.

However, this was not the time to play games… Mikan needs help. Hotaru gave the letter to Ruka and when he read it, he was instantly besieged with alarm.

"We have to see Natsume…and fast!"


	7. Chapter 7: the Fight for Conviction

**Chapter 7: The Fight for Conviction**

Natsume was in his room, his legs propped up on a chair and reading his usual manga, but his thoughts were elsewhere...

He kept reminiscing their heated confrontation and a guilty knot formed in his consciousness. Sure, he had treated her shabbily in the past but this time it looks like he had gone overboard... He sighed to himself, thinking he couldn't do anything about it anymore when the door flew open and in came Ruka and Hotaru, concern written on their faces. He knew then it was about Mikan and got out of bed. Ruka shot him a look near hatred, if that was possible.

"What did you say to Mikan?" he demanded.

When Natsume gave him the same blank look, Ruka thrust him the letter.

Natsume read it, his eyes slowly bulging as the words poured to him like bittersweet acid.

"_Dear Hotaru,_

_I'm sorry but I'll be going outside the academy for a while. I have to find out something about the Mafia so Natsume won't have to feel so bad for himself... and maybe convince them to stop their work._

_I'll be back soon, so don't worry..:-)_

_-always, Mikan"_

He heard Ruka's worried-sick voice through a blur, "The Mafia! Natsume, what did you say for her to think she could march into their camp and engage in peaceful conversation? More so, to convince them?" he slumped into the couch, defeat flooding him in waves, "They would shoot her dead before she even sets foot on their territory..."

And somehow, Natsume knew it rung true.

"That Mikan... Once she gets an idea into her head, nobody can stop her..." Hotaru was trying to sound reprimanding but fails, for it showed through her features like transparent veneer lining.

"Mikan... I hope she's all right till we find her..." Ruka muttered when he noticed that Natsume had gotten up and was striding towards the door.

"What are you going to do?" Ruka asked and then sensed the dead calm emanating from his friend as Natsume glanced back at him.

"Bring that idiot back here alive."

**- o -**

Night had descended over the forest in a whisper as the black automobile careened into the elegant driveway leading into the mid-section of the Mafia headquarters.

The Mafia headquarters was a network of tightly-secured buildings set up right next to each other, with a vast, open ground extending around each building. It was a mini-fief system ruled by a Mafia lord, who was assigned on that particularly city, among many others scattered across the globe. It consisted of three divisions: the outer, inner and the core, which was called "the Castle".

The outer divisions was the one concerning the forest, just before the first walls of middle division, and consisted mostly of outposts and sentries standing guard. The inner or middle division was the main area where the Mafia hoodlums gather and is the center of recreation. Lastly is the core, or "the Castle", as the Mafia Lord insists on calling, composed of the stone walls surrounding it, all of which is inside the middle division.  
That's a building with walls inside a fortress, and that's where the Mafia Lord resides, protected from outside harm.

The expensive black automobile holding Mikan finally stopped in the garage, and when she felt them going out and already gone, the girl quietly slid out of the trunk, where she hid earlier that afternoon, just before the sun set.

It was sheer luck that got her here, she knew. Nor was she ignorant of the fact that it would take her more than will to have gone this far...

-flashback-

Mikan was already outside the academy and wandered off, not knowing what to do despite her strong conviction.

"_Natsume feels so bad for himself because of them... Maybe I can do something about it." _she was thinking as she crossed the street and sat by a store ledge, thinking of something to get herself to the Mafia's place.

Yes, she had fled from the safety of the academy by a sudden surge of intuition and patriotism and now she had no idea where to start finding.

"_Maybe they don't even exist!" _the thought screamed at her in bold letters, but she shrugged it off. That wasn't a good thought... not something she need, especially right now.

"_Eventhough Natsume said that... I still believe somewhere, a part of him wishes to be comforted by someone, only... he doesn't want to be..." _Mikan looked up at the busy street before her, thoughts reminiscing, _"I have to do this for him..." _

Just then, two men in black suits and shades came out of the store by her side. They were talking in informal language, reserved only for the hoodlums type.

"We'll be wiping our asses with money bills soon!" the middle-aged man with the yellow tie howled with laughter, "How big was the next shipment?"

"About enough to buy us a week of whoring and gambling, if the Boss doesn't get too soft and allow us some time to root the cash." the other sallow man grinned, "We Mafia's sure live it luxurious, eh?"

And the man with the yellow-tie clapped his hand on the other's back, "You got that made! Come on, we have to get the other cargo in there."

He proceeded and unlocked the trunk of the car, then stopped, cursing savagely into the air.

"Damn! Forgot to buy a present for my wife."

"What the hell's wrong with you?" the sallow man cried.

"My wife..." the man with the yellow-tie scratched an itch in his head, embarrassed, "Got to be giving her a present, lest I'm not stepping foot into the house again."

The sallow man seemed to think it over and then eyed him pathetically, "That's too bad. Those broads works you like a mule and then demands payment." he cajoled the other toward the store, "Come on, I'll give you a thing or two about broad's likes." he sounded confident as they went to the store.

Mikan witnessed all this without being noticed as she sat huddled at the front of the store, her thoughts assessing the situation...

She sure heard them say "Mafia's"... there's no doubt, this was their transport.

"_Maybe if I could slip into the trunk..." _she thought, remembering it wasn't locked. And so, she did, crawling her way out of anyone's eyesight, opened the trunk and slid inside the uncomfortable heat and damp.

It was another huge streak of luck when they forgot to make sure the trunk was locked up tight and she eased a twig she found on the opening so it stayed just slightly ajar, allowing the air in.

-back to present-

And now, they forgot to unload the baggage, but Mikan knew they'd be retrieving it soon.

She have to hurry and find the Leader.

"_I can do this... There's no turning back now." _she thought as she scanned the dark garage, her feeble heart whimpering in her chest at the thought of invasion...

And that's when she turned the corner and bumped into a big man, who grabbed her hair before she could get away, struggling vainly in his grip. It was no use resisting, she soon figured, as the man pulled her hair taut from her scalp and she grimaced at the excruciating pain.

That was how she got to the Boss.

**- o -**

The Boss was a stern-looking ogre of a man whose eyes were deprived from mercy and brimming with world contempt. The Mafia had dragged her all the way into his Castle and into an elegantly furnished room full of men with black suit, shades and guns. The men were all eyeing her with a vicious look on their faces, while the Boss sat on his kinky chair of a throne and looked mildly amused at the strange visitor on the rug before him. Usually, it was commonly rogues, thieving merchants, or avenging lunatics there, stumbling over the rug only to be shot dead at the slightest provocation or a nasty word spoken.

But a little girl? It interested him.

"Boss, this brat was found sneaking in the garage as if looking for something. Maybe she had hitched a ride and gotten to this place, but from the way she's snooping around, I'd say it was not accidental that she finds herself here." the man grinned, revealing yellow, coarse teeth, "What do we do with her boss? From her uniform I'd say she's from the academy."

Mikan struggled from the big man's steel grip, "Let me go, you..!"

"My, she has a lot of guts doesn't she?" the Boss crooned, "For a little girl, that's very brave.." he sounded every bit as if making fun of her mere appearance.

Mikan sensed it and gave him what she hoped was a level gaze. When she spoke, it was with firm deliberateness, "I need to speak with you."

"Well, now really? Aren't you talking to me now?" and the men laughed along with their boss' dry joke.

"I want you to stop messing with the academy."

Shock disbelief echoed around the room. No one demanded from the boss and ever lived. No one.

"And if I don't..?" the Boss' tone was dangerously soft.

"I...I..." Mikan could only stutter. She hasn't thought of that before. And then someone grew impatient at all the idle chat.

"Boss, she's bluffing. Let's put her lights out."

And just when someone abouts to gun her dead, Mikan held out an outstretched hand in an instinctive attempt to shield herself and had nullified the gun in the process, rendering it futile. The attacker looked at his gun in disbelief, then at the nozzle and tried the trigger. The loud bang from the gun echoed around the spacious room as the man's head exploded.

Everyone was looking at Mikan now as if she were some kind of horrible monster, and they all took their guns, aimed it at her and fired. The dull retort of clicks filled the room with incredible loudness as they clicked the trigger unbelievingly. Now, the boss looked at her with sheer interest.

"And what if I stop messing with the academy?" he asked her and his tone was weighing something she didn't know.

Mikan halted, not really knowing what to say, when Natsume came to her mind and she was suddenly sure, "Then... Then Natsume won't bother you anymore!" with more conviction than what was necessary, and the Boss seemed to whisper to himself hoarsely as he heard the name.

"Natsume Hyuga... The Black Cat..?"

Gasps resounded around the room. Everyone knew the boy who took many of their number.. He was the most wanted on the Mafia's blacklist. Known only by the name of Black Cat, Natsume had torched many of his men alive.

She had the Boss full attention now.

He covertly signaled one of his men at the rear and nodded while he continued to study the girl... Her eyes had shone when she spoke Natsume's name...

The boss was one who could study psyche and this girl evidently showed her true purpose.

"I will stop messing with the academy... on one condition."

"What?" she sounded suspicious enough.

"You'll cooperate with us."

"But how?"

And before everything else, a huge man came from behind her and thrust a hankerchief loaded with chloroform to her face as she struggled vainly, the chemical starting to depress her system...as she heard through fading consciousness the boss' maniacal laughter.

"You'll see, little girl." he laughed softly, "You'll serve us well..." and the insane laughter seemed to echo in her ears as she finally realized what they meant.

In that instant, Mikan knew she had made a terrible mistake.


	8. Chapter 8: Crossing the Border

**Chapter 8: Crossing the Border**

The news about Mikan's runaway was soon spread among her friends and other worthy people capable and willing to help, to which many agreed mainly to the fact that Natsume was there.

Some who also care for Mikan went along too.

Tsubasa, Misaki and some selected seniors caught the whiff of the news from all the way on the other side of the division due to Hotaru's roaming spybot and a few agreed to help. The meeting place was outside on the edge of the Northern forest grounds where Yuu was waiting, his alice prepared to make illusions if the situation deems fit.

But the matter was kept hushed up.

Natsume himself decided not to broadcast the event, and that they have to fend for it and set the rescuing operation to be done by themselves.

They couldn't afford to let the Academy know about Mikan's runaway, or not only would she be facing suspension or grave punishment, but also of the consequences... After all, they were dealing with the Mafia, one of the most renowned and infamous gangsters throughout, known for their power and influence over the world and under it. There would be no telling what the Academy would resolve to, considering the fact that their involvement would tie them up with nasty publicity.

Their meddling would require calling in huge reinforcements for the raid because negotiations can't possibly work at a time like this where a stupid girl from the academy came marching into their territory and tell them to stop their work. Who would believe that cock-and-bull apology, most especially gangsters of their caliber?

Besides, calling in a large number like that would stir the media and soon, half the world would know they existed, which would be more than they can handle.

On the other hand, if the academy sends one or a pack of their elite troops to rescue Mikan, then that would mean officially declaring the war between them and then the hole would get too big for anyone to patch up.

In all probability, the Academy would leave Mikan for dead and even make it look like an accident, just to end the conflict.

So, this decided with Natsume's knowing mind, they had kept it to themselves and those who were obliged to help were to assemble at the forest before the clock struck midnight.

Yuu had worked up an illusion to mask the sounds in the meeting and made it look like it was made by wild animals, working up a silk screen that was invisible to cover them.

One by one, the crowd accumulated and they sat huddled by a small lamp on the center, conversing low. Natsume looked at the wall leading outside and an unbidden thought came to him.

_" '...I have to find out something about the Mafia... So Natsume won't feel so bad about himself...'"_

_"That idiot... Who does she think she is_?" he grimaced at the thought, as if it caused him pain to remember, "_How can she be so stupid? Damn it!" _

"Natsume? ...What's wrong?"

It was Ruka, who came behind. He had a look of worry in his face, and a surge of guilt suddenly filled the fire-alice wielder. His friend was here, worrying about two people he cares about, and he had to look like he hated every bit of it. But that wasn't really the reason, Natsume figured, and he knew Ruka was thinking the same thing. Ruka looked at his friend and he perfectly understood what he's been going through.

_"He cares just as much for Mikan..." _the animal-pheromone alice wielder thought as he looked at him.

Natsume unclenched his fist which had started to release fire for the last minute and gave his friend a reassuring look. Ruka nodded back in understanding; it was a gesture between them that was as brief as it was old, but to which they both understood to what it implied.

Meaningful silence.

"Do you think..." Ruka said uncertainly after a while, "Do you think Mikan is all right?" They both had their eyes on the walls of the Academy, which beyond those 10 inches blocks of cemented stone lay the open road.

_"She has to be..." _Natsume was thinking. There was a rustling behind them; it was Tsubasa and several others.

The assembly was finally completed as the clock striked twelve.

In a span of 15 minutes, including the time it took to scatter the news, they have accomplished what would've been a tedious work. And it was mainly thanks to Hotaru's convenient invention.

The meeting started with Tsubasa clearing the situation and he stood taller among the lot of elementary students.

He started, "We'll keep this matter to ourselves. In the meantime, we have to come up with a plan to slip outside without alarming the entire academy. But there's a problem." he turned to Misaki at his side, "Misaki, if you will."

"Yes." Misaki stepped forward, then seemed to wait for someone. Finally, Misaki's clone came running from behind her, panting. The other clones came too.

"We're back!!" the first clone cried gleefully.

"Yep, and we got some despairing news to offer..." said the 2nd clone.

"According to our scouting, this is what we found out:" the 3rd, scholarly clone paused exhaling, then, "The Academy walls are rigged with volatile electric current that rans along the length of one end to the other, surrounding the entire area of the academy... Contact with the current would alert the authorities at the slightest... At least, about 15 minutes estimation till they reach here and find out who's twitching on the ground." she smiled ruefully when Misaki glowered at her. The clone appeared sorry, then continued, "Any disturbances on the wall would also have the same effect. From the wall's high-level security parameters, I'd say any attack made on it would be connected to the academy immediately."

"That's..." Yuu seemed to say something, then changed it, "That looks... rough to go over." he sighed.

The revelation seemed to sink everyone's spirits, as if the fact had drained them.

"If that's so secured, how come Mikan got to cross it??" the guy on Natsume's gang, Mochiage-kun blurted out.

"Yes, I'm wondering about that..." Yuu said, "She does have the nullification alice but the length of the wall is just too long for her alice to cover- up."

"Nor is it that strong." Sumire added.

A pause.

"It is possible." Natsume said out-of-the-blue.

"What??" the question resounded around the group as they turned and stared at the raven-haired boy.

Natsume gazed at the walls on his side, then slid his hands in the pockets of his pants, "I have witnessed her alice had improved when she nullified the alice of fortification."

A gasp cut through the huddled crowd. It was Yuu, astonished.

"The fortification alice?? It's one of the most elite type of alice known to exist! Because of its unalterable nature, no alice can dispel it except for the wielder and..." he paused, a knowledge suddenly dawning as he realized, "...the alice of nullification..."

"Mikan..." Hotaru muttered, an imperceptible note in her voice.

"But even so, to disable the entire length of the walls would be--impossible for... with just her!" Mochiage insisted.

"It is feasible." Natsume went on again, and this time faced the wall, "She had nullified the entire wall for a very short duration of time... Say, only for crossing over."

Everyone turned to look at the tall, forbidding walls, their hopes slowly sinking. They had no other measure to go through...

But Natsume was thinking hard.

"How about if we fly over?" Mochiage suggested. He was the one who had the alice of lifting.

Ruka faced him, "That was done. The results were risky." he turned to look away, and he said matter-of-factly, "And we can't afford any risks."

"Let's go to it directly." Anna suggested eagerly, "We'll put the guards to sleep, and then sneak out."

"That can't be..." Hotaru told her, "An automaton device checks the guard's condition every hour at night. And the gate's code lock changes for an indefinite period of time. If there's a break out, they would know."

"What about if we disarm one section of the wall?" Nonoko suggested.

"Yes... That's possible. But how?"

Silence.

"It can be done." Natsume said and they all stared at him once again, "Since electricity is a free-flowing energy, it's possible to change its direction by barring its path of current."

"…That's right!" Yuu exclaimed after thinking it over, "That way, that one section of the wall won't have any current on it..."

"That's brilliant, Natsume!" Sumire swooned at him.

"But how do we change its current?"

"…With this." Hotaru pulled out a long violet-colored snake, "Invention # 51, the conductor snake-loop. Works like a convenient extension wire. With its conformable body, it can be twisted to the right angles. Just place it over an electrical current and its magnetic properties would transfer the current on it. Comes free with installation."

"Great! We can cross now!"

"Wait!" Ruka called out, "Someone has to stand watch while the rescue team is gone..."

"I will!" Yuu voluntered, "My alice will come in handy at covering the loop-hole until you guys return."

No one seems to say anything for a while when Natsume glanced Sumire's way.

"You too Sumire. Your alice is needed to detect anyone's arrival."

"H-Huh??" the cat-dog transformation alice wielder sounded disappointed enough to let him know she was in this only because of him, then shrugged it off and gave in, "All right! But be back soon ok?"

The team soon got to work, and the loop hole was shaped into a semi-circle arc and placed over the section of the wall that was divided; underneath it was the small, abandoned gate that was cemented and became part of the wall, leaving an edge to it so that it looked separated from the rest.

The loop fitted perfectly over it and the palpable twinge of current disappeared on the space it covered, which was small and just right for a person to march through. The electric current was now passing on the conductor loop above instead of that section of the wall.

They looked at it with something like inevitable doom in their eyes.

But Tsubasa nodded to the others and they boost themselves up carefully, as if their life depended on it. Indeed, one false move and it's down with everything they have planned. They moved meticulously but quietly and the others who made it to the other side congratulated themselves inwardly, as if passing a trial.

Soon, everyone had crossed the border that separated them from the academy and the outside world and Tsubasa signaled Sumire and Yuu farewell and take care. The others bid them goodbye too, and looked at the academy one last time before it fades away as they hurried to locate the Mafia headquarters.


	9. Chapter 9: the Approaching Storm

**Chapter 9: The Approaching Storm**

The full moon was once more back on its pedestal in the heavens, this time fighting the dark clouds that threatened to shun away its brilliance. The dark clouds, which forecasted thunderstorms and heavy shower, came from the east and is gliding on its platform, its sluggish movements wavering yet unstoppable as it heads off to the direction of the moon.

Soon, like a curtain it would swallow the light, and then all would be in muffled darkness that was not complete...

But that would come later, if the winds favored it.

Right now, it did its task to give illumination to the group of academy students stalking on the forest grounds below that surrounded the infamous Mafia headquarters.

It beamed back its message to them through its slowly fading light:

_Hurry._

**- o - **

The forest was rippled with movements as the academy force began their infiltration.

They started with the outermost, which was littered with bits of guards here and there. Ruka and a pack of wolves together with other alice wielders combed the outer section, knocking out the enemies discreetly along the way. Soon, the area was secured and the eagles and hawks scouted the area up ahead on the core division.

After a while, the visible outlines of the birds were seen above the gloom coming from the sky above, and they glided down to the academy students below where Ruka was.

The news it brought back to the team was upsetting.

"The place is full of bombs!" Mochiage-kun exclaimed after a while.

"No," Ruka corrected him, "It's full of armed Mafia's." He turned to the group, "How are we going to proceed with locating Mikan's whereabouts? A security as tight as this would be almost impossible to tread on."

Anna was holding the unconscious Kokoro in her arms, "Not with Kokoro's mind-reading alice... If he were okay, it would have been easy to get one Mafia and read his mind." she sighed.

It was true. During one of the infiltration in the outer sections of the forest, Kokoro was left on a safe place while the others went ahead. Knowing his alice was for other mental purposes, he wouldn't be of much help.

But some of Anna's black pie was left behind and, due to a series of accidents, it finally landed into his mouth.

And so now, he lay here unconscious.

"It would still be a week before he wakes up..." Anna whined miserably, "How are we going to find Mikan now?"

"Maybe we could try interrogation." Tsubasa suggested after a while.

"Oh, right! That could work!" Anna was ecstatic. After being plague by Kokoro's demise by her own creation, she was glad something else could work, and she volunteered to be in it.

"I'll join too, but just the two of us isn't enough to loosen their tongue." Tsubasa was thinking aloud when a voice came from behind.

"I'll come." It was Natsume. He had just finished preparing himself.

There was something scary about him... Tsubasa thought. It was as if he was suddenly possessed by the tension of the battle and was eager to get his hands on a mafia's neck.

That much was evident on his disposition that Tsubasa soon began to worry for his state.

But Anna cut through the line with her voice, "That's great! Natsume would do!"

"Yes, they knew him _well_ enough to be frightened." Mochiage-kun grinned, giving emphasis to the _well._.

And so it was decided.

**- o - **

The night air was humid and hot; the typical indication of a thunderstorm coming up to be accompanied by cold shower of pouring rain.

"It's a full moon tonight huh?" a thin mafia man remarked, glancing at the moon high above.

"Yeah…." The mafia with the flopping beer-belly grinned, "Kind of good to eat something cold on a hot night like this when a storm's approaching."

Somewhere on the veranda of one of the buildings in the middle division of the headquarters, the two mafia henchmen stood, looking up at the full moon. They were doing their night shift but their guard was off as they let their thoughts drift away.

"Or hot." The other man with the thin, crude face grinned back naughtily. He had the face of a man who seemed to forget to sleep in the evening and did it instead when the sun was up, and the dark hollows under and around his eyes gave him the feel of an overused man who had a grudge against the world.

The other man with the beer-belly that was too big for his suit to handle and had eyes like slits grinned the same way at the thin man.

"Yeah…!" he agreed blissfully, "But those mafia broads are yet to come…" he sighed regretfully.

The thin man snorted with disdain, "Thanks to that brat, whom Boss had suddenly taken all his devoted time to, we'll be spending a week without a hot broad warming our beds..."

"Don't remind me." The tubby lard of a man sighed again.

"The gunners say she gave them one hell of a scare when she did something to their guns." The thin man told the other, like one would tell fairy tales to a flock of children by the fireplace, "Wouldn't you know it! Those guys at the academy sure are breeding one-of-a-kind freaks."

"Yeah, you said it!" the tubby guy guffawed in laughter, clapping the thin man in the back in full agreement as he did. They looked like they were having a nice joke. "What did she do? I haven't heard of that part."

"Something about bumming with the bullets…" the thin man's eyes were glazed as he used every bit of his IQ into the task of remembering, "One gunner shot his sorry head off when he realized the trigger didn't work on her…" he shivered at the thought, "Blood splattered everywhere. But it showed those who tried..." he stopped then exclaimed unbelievingly, "And she only held out a hand! And now the Boss has taken a fancy on her… Something about using her alice or something…." his voice trailed off as the topic commenced into other subjects.

They continued talking but Natsume felt that it was all he needed.

Time to dismiss the idiots.

"Heard about the cargo late---"the tubby guy skidded to a halt as he saw a flash of red light by his side… and before everything, a malignant aura made them turn behind.

Out of the gloom just beyond the balcony emerged Natsume, his blazing crimson eyes brimming with contempt. The men almost cringed at the sight; it was like seeing the devil. They made to take a step back from the stare and realized they were immobilized. In the shadows of the night they saw a figure illuminated by the moon... It was Tsubasa standing on the railing, pinning their shadows. They were suddenly trapped like rabbits. And worst, the Black Cat had to be one of their perpetrators.

The men were practically scared shitless now, but still held the gangster code in their voice.

"You're those Academy freaks!" the thin man pointed out an accusing finger at them, "You've come to save that brat, noh??"

"Watch your mouth!" Anna's voice abruptly cut through the dim, "Or feel the taste of death sooner than you think." She emerged from the darkness beside Tsubasa and gave them a wry smirk. In her hands she held a black, glutinous substance growing what looked like warts and molds on the surface and a think, fuzzy something covering below. It was smoking and the smell of it was like that of a rotting carcass. It was her greatest invention and Anna was proud of using it to these guys.

The men saw this and physically cringe at the sight of the thing---if it was even a thing.

It looked _alive_. They couldn't imagine just what it would do to them... Just the thought of it was enough and that finally did the job of shutting their mouths.

Natsume, his foul mood emitting dark waves, spoke in a low voice devoid from mercy.

"Where is Mikan?"

Tsubasa took one look at him and knew those eyes could kill without a moment's hesitation.

He was dangerous.

"Speak up if you value your life." Tsubasa advised them matter-of-factly. True, Natsume doesn't look like he had the patience to even listen to these men and was merely holding onto his gut to keep from torching them alive, then and there.

But it seems like they got the message clear this time when they caught the deathly whiff of Anna's lethal pie.

"She's in the Labyrinth." the thin man seemed to say, then his grimace slipped into a grin, as he lavished the superiority he had at the moment. He didn't seem to sense the danger he was in and pushed his luck by adding a dare into his voice, "Your friend there knows where she is." he nudged at Natsume's way impudently, then smirked naughtily. "But you'll never get there, you frea---" the thin mafia man never finished his talk as his voice was choked up in flames when the raven-haired boy gave him a strong dose of his fire that came from within.

The man burned in an instant and the rest of his remains disintegrated into ashes that were blown by the wind.

Natsume was furious now, his crimson eyes seeming to flare in the dark. There was a malevolent air exuding from him, like a volcano about to reach its peak and erupt.

The other tubby man saw this with growing dread and terror. He was starting to get the idea it was bad---no, _suicide_ to play games with this guy... especially when he looked like that.

And so, the tubby man piped down and decided to play it wise.

"T-The facility room…!" the tubby man blurt out in haste, "I-In the Castle... Pls. don't, don't!" he pleaded, whimpering savagely and crossed his hands in his face.

Natsume considered him for a while there, just a bit, as if he was actually meaning to torch him either way and for a moment the tubby guy felt his heart stopped its beating. He was suddenly very sure what will happen and he continued to whimper more.

But Natsume ignored him and went away. Tsubasa looked at the fat man with something like pity; he was such a big fellow yet his heart was just as small. A signal from him and Anna went to the fat man and shoveled a sample of her lethal pie into his mouth. The man fell from his spot and dozed off instantly.

Tsubasa looked after the fire-alice wielder's back uncertainly; that guy was so determined that he was betting he'd go after Mikan even if no one else went with him or if it was worst than the Mafia. Those eyes blazed with fiery determination yet were masked by the dead calm radiating from him... Tsubasa feared he might get blinded with all the fury holed up within him.

"Natsume--!" Tsubasa called after his diminishing figure and he was faintly aware that he had shifted his face to meet his call.

"You're going alone?"

For an instant, Tsubasa thought he saw nothing but madness there, but after an endless moment, the raven-haired boy flicked him a calm disposition.

"I'll be back with Mikan." he said and disappeared into the gloom of the forest beyond.

Somehow, Tsubasa knew it was true.

**- o - **

Meanwhile, the team started to cleanse the middle section.

It was decided that way for precautionary measures, just in case. The middle division consisted of drooling, hazy sentries anyhow, and it had been at least moderately easy to dispatch them one by one.

The Boss was in one of his moods he got some of his men from the mid-section and transferred them to the Castle to celebrate with the whores before he goes off to some other place, thus the reduced number.

Hotaru and her inventions helped in disabling the minor locks and codes found on the division, and it had been easier to get to the places where there might still be hoodlums in hiding.

But the main building that housed majority of the mafia lay untouched...

It was the Castle, the building within a wall that was inside a fortress of a compound and Hotaru couldn't cure the security parameters with all her genius put together.

"Can't you... Teleport us to it?" someone asked the teleportation alice girl and she shrugged back.

"No, the building inside it is too far. And besides, haven't you heard? Over there, they've got every square inch covered with armed, tough mafia." she was explaining matter-of-factly, "We can't drop one without the whole army falling on top of us. They'd swallow us whole before we even touch the walls of that building."

It was true. Ruka's hawks and eagles confirmed that.

"And they're all alert for anything huh." Nonoko mumbled resignedly.

"Attacking from the air doesn't do either..." Mochiage explained, "Those guys are equipped with canons, bazookas, grenade launchers and other forms of aerial artillery."

Silence.

"...This feels just like the academy walls!" someone cried out, astonished at the familiarity of the situation. But it only aggravated it as the team slumped into tones of despair...

No, this was worst than before.

Here it was, their Mikan lay confined just within a distance's reach... and they couldn't pass through. The sighs resounded around the small group.

"Mikan..." Ruka mumbled desolately.

"Don't worry." a voice came from behind and they all turned to look. It was Tsubasa, with a confident look in his face---no, he was at _ease. _Standing there by the gloom with a devil-may-care smile, he looked like he was the only one who didn't hear the devastating news, and his confidence was contagious.

"Natsume is already there." he eyed the group, then smiled, "He'll get Mikan."

There was something so sure about his voice, and Tsubasa felt it too. It flowed into the group's weary spirit and the change was almost palpable.

"But how did he got in?" someone spoke his own doubts.

Tsubasa shrugged, "Only he knows..."

And the small academy group all turned to look at the walls of the building ahead, the dark, forbidding skies looming above the background. Somewhere, the audible crack of lightning resounded from afar, and they knew what was coming without anybody's proclamation.

It would be raining soon.

**- o - **

_At the academy, in Narumi's room..._

Narumi was jerked awake by an urgent knocking on his door. He sat up groggily, rubbed the sleep off his eyes, and made his way towards the door.

_"Another scheming student..." _he thought, judging from the urgency of the knock.

He opened the door and Serina appeared, the blonde woman with the crystal ball. She looked distressed.

"Naru... They---" she began.

And Narumi knew.

The crystal ball had seen through even Yuu's illusion, but it was after they got away, for the ball was stored somewhere else at the time and no one was attending to it. But as its wielder, Serina finally got in touched with it on a sudden intuition of hers, and found Yuu and Sumire down by the grounds beside the old walls of the academy.

Together, the two rushed down towards the forest grounds.

**- o -**

Yuu woke up to find Sumire was gone. The boy stood upright upon realizing that he had dozed off and the illusion was gone when he was sleeping. He glanced frantically on both sides, panic rising to his throat at the thought of their unguarded moments only to see Sumire's diminishing back from the distance, chasing something that looked like a rat.

"No..." Yuu muttered resignedly. Any moment now...

Narumi's voice came from behind, as expected, but Yuu jumped upon hearing it, guilt and doom flooding him in waves.

"Narumi-sensei! Mikan was..." the illusion alice wielder began.

And so, he explained everything.

Narumi silently nodded throughout as if he understood. But at the mention of Natsume, he was suddenly alarmed.

"Did he equip his mask?" he asked Yuu urgently, as if the fact that they have just violated the academy rules was the least of his concerns.

"No..." Yuu replied, puzzled, and then the realization dawned on him.

_Natsume doesn't have his alice-control mask...and he went out to deal with mafia's._

It was bad---Narumi knew he have to get moving.

"Yuu, where is Sumire?" Narumi demanded and at the mention of her name, she appeared from the bushes, exhausted. She saw them, was given a briefing before she could panic, and immediately understood.

"Sumire, can you still trace Natsume' s scent?"

The cat-dog alice wielder meowed appreciatively. "Yeah! I'd know his scent anywhere!"

"Good. Lead me to him." he finished curtly.

"Sensei, is it what I think it is?" Yuu looked up to his teacher uncertainly, as if he feared the answer.

Narumi nodded grimly. "Yes," he turned to explain it to them, "Natsume always wears an alice-control mask when he goes to his missions, because it requires that he use a strong amount of his alice." he paused, "Let's just hope he can control his emotions..."

_"Or it might be too late." _his mind added.

Sumire heard the grim voice of her sensei and was instantly besieged with alarm.

It was her Natsume they were talking about.

Quickly, she begun to trace his scent and brawled at the men when they lagged behind and they seized up to catch up with her. Serina was left behind, but she knew too well of the situation and hushed up. She had a care for those students...

"I hope they're safe..." she muttered what sounded like a prayer to the wind.

**- o - **

Narumi was right behind Sumire and as he followed, a thought came to him...

Natsume hadn't equipped his mask, and so the fire he releases can't be controlled in intensity. He only hoped the fire-alice wielder could get hold of his emotions, or everything would go up in flames...

For the tendency was, if he used too much of his alice, which he probably will soon, he could die from the strain---

And to add to that, Mikan was there to complete the picture. That sums up all the worst eventualities...

He tried not to think about that.


	10. Chapter 10: Consoling Darkness

**Chapter 10: Consoling Darkness**

The facility room where Mikan lay confined was drab and poorly decorated, with a few sentries outside the thick, bolted door.

The Boss had the notion that since his entire castle was built around walls fortified with every kind of top-notch security gadgets and situated inside the entire Mafia headquarters realm, no one would dare try invade it, even if it was for the sake of one, annoying brat with an alice that was going to make him fabulously wealthy.

No, he didn't quite think so.

Not if her alice would be useless for the academy's usage.

Except for protecting herself, the nullification alice was something equal to having no alice at all, with but a little benefit on the user's part.

The Boss knew the academy like the back of his hand, and ever since they were messing with each other's businesses, it soon became something of a brother-to-brother relationship. Those academy fellows won't risk their beloved behinds if it meant igniting the battle between them that has long since been flaring.

Nope, that won't do.

So, the cocksure ogre of a boss loosened his grip on contacts from the outside, locked the noise-resistant transmission room containing all the incoming urgent calls signaling an invasion from the divisions, and dwelled on his prize trophy, Mikan.

_"With a little training and poking, she'll soon turn out to be my greatest military asset..."_

he thought, rubbing his hands together vigorously at the vision of glory in his mind. His eyes were twinkling greedily in the meager light of the room as he imagined all the immense profit he would soon be reaping.

_"And then, I can raid even the highest security level banks in the world without being harmed..!" _he was daydreaming to the point of snickering aloud.

He certainly could use Mikan's nullification alice in those tight security areas where there were lots of justice-leagues standing guard like the almighty good-of-all. That would show them...

Mikan would nullify their guns and other range weapons, except something like those man-to-man weapons which could hurt her---but that'll be dealt with his men---and if they sent for those megaton tanks and canons rolling in the streets, like those common in serious bank robberies, she would so much as wave her hand at them and it'll be as good as dead.

The Boss exulted at the thought of the invasion and he snickered aloud at the thought, thrilled at the prospect of actually winning.

On a sudden compulsion, he then decided to looked in on the object of his fantasy in the facility room, came in, and patted her head, like who would a father to daughter at bedtime. Except he was grateful to her for his own self-centered wishes.

"Soon, little girl... You'll be serving me good." he crooned.

The Boss left the room after taking one last exulting look at her, and danced off towards the exit, conjuring up another of his fantasies. He would need it later for his private celebration.

_-Moments later... -_

Mikan stirred in her sleep and regained consciousness through a blur of vision that seemed spin around and around... It seems like the world was suddenly one big rocking boat, and she was on the center of it. The drug was receding from her system at the time of a lichen's growth and she felt extremely nauseated but can't throw up.

She realized her long, sienna hair was down and untied and that her academy uniform was crumpled and had a disheveled look from all the trouble she went through. But that didn't bother her.

Because nothing seemed right, even from the look of the room she was in.

_"I feel so dizzy... What's wrong with me? I remembered the man---" _she paused, then it all came back in a flurry of vision and she felt that her head had taken a sudden swing of headache.

_"The man forced me to inhale that cloth with--something in it and I lost consciousness...!" _

Mikan scanned the room around her with a feeling of mounting panic, looking for some hole to escape. But her mind told her there was none.

_"They've captured me... And now, they're going to use me."_

The thought was filled with bitter guilt and terror, but of which only added to her sense of need to get away from the place.

It suddenly felt like the mere touch of the cold, metal floor made her puke--every thing wanted to make her puke but she couldn't.

_"I must get out of here..."_ she thought hazily, her head throbbing with dull pain each time she bumped herself.

Slowly, crawling unsteady, Mikan examined the room, eventhough her field of vision seemed to be playing tricks to her, swaying turbulently in her sight like she was in a boat amidst a raging storm.

It was a small, badly decorated room---gray padded walls surrounded all four corners of it. There was a wooden chair and table with a wilted flower on the easternmost side, next to the heavy bolted door. The gray cot she was lying onto was next to it and below was a gray partition screen with its decaying canvass that seemed to be hiding something behind.

Agonizingly, she eased her way towards the partition screen and when she had so much as touched its canvass, she peeked down underneath and saw things there she didn't understand.

There were a myriad of junks and used metals there, some decaying parts of machines and other assortment. It looked like a peddler's treasured collection of childhood mementos; things that seemed important in a child's view but lost its importance as time dragged on and was now left to rot in this---not so much given attention place.

"_These things were probably important. Maybe there was some use for it?" _

Curious and unstoppable, Mikan half-dragged half-lifted herself towards the back of the screen and peered at it. There was nothing there on the side except for the mountain loads of junks and endless junks piling on top of the other in an effort to save space and the rug beside it. Other than that, it was a dead end.

And yet... There was something.

_"There has to be something..! I have to escape from here..!" _her mind insisted. So, despite what her eyes told her, she crawled towards the dead-end of the screen---when her feet caught something on the dusty rug.

It was bulging on the rug... something was underneath it. The shape told it was a small, horizontal line---

Mikan braced herself up, wincing at the dull pain in her head as she did so, and uncovered the rug only to be filled with ineffable joy at what she had discovered.

It was a steel hatch.

_"Escape route!"_ her mind told her, as if informing her uncomprehending thought what it was.

Somehow... It had to lead somewhere.

She didn't know where, only, she has to get away from here.

Mikan touched the cold hatch and placed her hands under it... then she started to raise it up.

_"God please if you're there don't let it be too old that it's rusted and I can't ease it open with this feeble strength of mine oh god please if you're there let this be my escape if you're---" _Mikan was thinking feverishly in her dazed mind in a last-minute prayer when she felt the hatch open a bit and the waft of cold, fetid air and darkness greeted her senses.

"Oh, thank you! Thank all the howalons!" she muttered aloud in joy, and quickly clapped a hand on her mouth; the guards must not know, or then it would be really over. She opened it all the way to the side quietly, and stared at it.

The darkness and cold air was pouring out of the hole now... It looked every bit like the stairway to hell and oblivion. Mikan shivered, but if this was the only way out...

There was a metal ladder leading down, she saw, but the rest of it was swallowed by the blackness.

_"It's the only way... You have to go." _the part of her mind advised logically. It had the faint resigned quality of one who was about to march to the gallows.

It was true. So, she arranged the rug on top of the hatch, and felt herself submitting to whatever lay below those hollowed depths.

Easing her swaying body on the hole, she carefully stepped her foot on the first rung, then continued downwards, each time the dark eating away what illumination was left.

The light flowing above seemed blessedly welcoming, beckoning her to forget it and go back up. But no, if she stayed there... The outcome was worst.

She knew that much and with every ounce of her will, she forced herself to close back the hatch containing all the light and it slid back with a thud that rung in the deafening silence below. The hatch with the rug on top of it would now be back in place, as if nothing happened.

The darkness here was pitch black and closed in on her on all sides and it was only with sheer brute force that she willed herself to take another step...trying not to think just how far below it went. There was a cold draft of wind coming from somewhere... Somehow in her nauseated state, it was numbing her senses enough for her not to suffocate in the blackness. And so, Mikan continued downwards that way, focusing her mind on what the cold wind was doing to her, until she felt her feet met the stone floor.

_"The trip to hell is over. Now let's move on to the tour...!" _her mind cried amusingly, taunting the fear she felt creeping up her spine, immobilizing her in place. She shivered.

_"It could be anything down here..."_

Now, that was true. It was inky black down here in this tunnel of a place. The snow-like blast of air long forgotten caressed her shivering body and seemed to propel her to move or be gone with it. Mikan's lips were chattering now, and the combination of her dazed state was almost mutual. For one thing, she couldn't find her way in the dark without her sight swaying in her field of vision, and the cold was getting to her bones. It didn't matter much, either way.

_"Maybe I should stick to the walls..." _

and so she did just that, groping her way on the walls, not knowing what to expect only that this was the most logical choice---

The only logical choice.

The cold air was gusting somewhere on her right, and she figured if she followed that, it would lead to some opening--or something

_"If there's a wind, there's a way." _she thought crazily and nearly laughed aloud.

_-Several minutes later...-_

The mindless groping of the stale walls in the dark felt so long ago, and Mikan's thoughts seemed to move farther into uneasiness, and her hope was slowly dissipating into dread. She can't remember just how long she's been walking blindly in the dark, and the thought of getting lost suddenly became the topic of her mind.

_"What if this--tunnel goes a long way? What if I don't make it? What if--"_ she stopped her train of thought and shook herself awake to reality. Not a good thought.

The nausea was worst now, with the cold air stirring the bowels of her stomach and she really thought she might puke, which was better. But she didn't and it only made her sick.

Mikan thought she was never in a worst situation than she was now...

Everything was hazy and numb and frightening and cold.

And she felt despairingly alone and scared, just like any little girl.

_"I'll just have to keep going... I have to..." _she forced another staggering step forward, and stopped.

Something caught her eye.

A blue light from the distance was drifting eerily in mid-air... up and down...

It was coming in her direction.

Panic and raw horror soaked through Mikan as she watch, gripped by the little blue light that was every bit the indication of---

_"A GHOST!!" _her mind bellowed at her in bold letters with exclamation points, like that of comics, but somewhere in her mind added a tiny voice,

"_Just lately you said anything could exist out here. Haven't you prepared yourself for that??" _the courageous part of her scolded savagely.

"No..." Mikan said the thought aloud to her turbulent mind. It sounded like a whimper.

The blue, notorious looking light was coming closer now, her wavering sight told her---somehow, her swaying vision helped in lessening the fear---but it was still fear, raw and fresh.

And it was coming.

Any moment now...

_"Well, HAVEN'T YOU??" _the other voice cried out again, commanding her to move. It was unbelievably loud in her ears that she was actually talking to it.

"Well... Y-Yes..." she whispered uncertainly, just to assure the voice. But it was undaunted.

_"Then don't just whimper like a pup and take-THAT-BLUE-THING-DOWN!" _

That finally sparked the frail bulb in Mikan's head. It sparked it and it infused its wit and fervor to her fearful mind and empowered the latter, unleashing all the hate and determination in her in a sudden adrenaline rush.

_"No ghost is keeping me from my escape." _the thought was coming from a distant place, somewhere on the back of her mind. But it was hers. All the weariness, danger and guilt she felt mingled to form a single-minded, burning drive.

The light was rounding the corner and in that instant, without coherent thought, Mikan leaped from the side and assaulted the light, battling it with her little fist like it was her mortal enemy. She fought at it feverishly, even awkwardly. Anything to rid herself of the _thing... _of her own fears.

And then her hands met warm flesh when there should have been furry, crawly skin and she thought fleetingly, _"It's not a monster??"_ before a familiar voice cut through the gloom.

"Oi, cut it out!"

The blue light suddenly flared and became two, enough to illuminate the monster.

It was Natsume.

In the darkness and her tricky vision, she did not see his face when she came close for she was seriously thinking it was a will-of-wisp, with her mind filled with nothing but blind determination.

The flustered girl saw him with dawning, bursting joy like she never knew before and threw her arms around the fire-alice wielder.

"Natsume..!" she cried into his chest, "Natsume, I thought... I thought..."

"…You thought you're strong enough to deal with the Mafia?" the raven-haired boy cut through with his whiplash-like voice. He was reprimanding her angrily, and his eyes drew the scared girl back from her tight embrace.

Her feeling of happiness and relief evaporated out from her as she realized what he meant and tried not to look at those eyes... She placed all her interest in looking at her feet instead.

When she felt Natsume's demanding eyes on her, she finally found her suddenly feeble quality of a voice and tried to explain, "I'm sorry... I wanted to convince them to stop so---"

"Did they listen to you?" he rebutted with something like sarcasm in his voice.

And that finally sunk the mark of Mikan's utter mistake. Her once bursting joy was now replaced with a crying guilt in her heart... and she was every bit of sorry. But somehow, she couldn't tell it straight to those angry crimson eyes that seemed to be filled with sick worry and anger at the same time. She was about to slump to infinite despair when Natsume spoke, gently this time, but still his voice.

"Hmph. You never change..." he muttered, but there was a smile on his lips and Mikan knew it was all right...

"Natsume...!" Mikan slumped herself into his warm chest and hugged him tight, never letting go.

After what seemed like an eternity, she drew back and looked at him looking at her. And then he pulled away before anything could turn intimate.

"Geez. You squeezed the breath out of me..." he muttered. Though he loved the feel of her on his skin, he smiled at her instead and said, "Come on, let's get out of this hellhole."

"Right!" Mikan agreed enthusiastically.

Mikan started to follow his lead, glad to be in his presence more than anything else, when a sudden weakness flailed her very being and she held a hand on the wall just in time to catch her whole weight. Natsume looked back at her with something like veiled alarm in his eyes and went back for her.

"You're weak." he remarked emotionlessly.

Mikan tried to stand up and appear okay.

No, not now...

Not when her savior was here. She can't ruin this moment.

"No, I'm fine... It's just the drug..." she tried to say reassuringly when she fell down again on her knees, the weakness and swaying too much for her weary body to bear.

The raven-haired boy stared at her for a while, an imperceptible expression on his face, then he turned and kneeled, with his back to her.

"Climb on."

Mikan stared at him as if uncomprehending. "What?"

"What 'What'? You want to risk stumbling in the dark and getting in my way than you already are?" again, that faintly reprimanding tone.

That finally got her going. She slid her arms around his neck, almost seductively in her near-faint state, and he lifted her off easily.

_"His back is so warm..."_

She was faintly aware of his arms circling her legs, carrying her protectively. It was suddenly very comfortable... Mikan smelled his fresh masculine scent as she drifted in and out of consciousness. It was such a heavenly scent and she could've fallen asleep with it... Natsume's smell. It was just like him.

"You sure are as heavy as a sack of rice..." Natsume remarked with a tease in his voice but Mikan only smiled to herself. That was not true. She weighed nothing at all in her weakened state. Natsume was making an effort to maintain her consciousness until they get back.

And he was already worried-sick he would've opt to leave her in this place he knew was safe if it meant leaving her out of the danger outside.

But she was scared and utterly vulnerable he could never allow her to be here all alone.

He knew of this place...

The mafia had a covert weaponry research and production made underground in the headquarters, but an explosion occurred in the manufacturing section that thoroughly rendered the entire research inoperable.

Time passed and new advances were discovered, trampling the research and everything involved in it. Thus, it was abandoned and forgotten. This tunnel was once the underground path used to transport the products from one place to the other and leads to different areas of the headquarters, but it was long since abandoned...

And since restoring or abolishing the massive research made would require great financing, the mafia soon decided to let it be.

Let bygones be bygones. Time would do its work.

And so the steel hatch in the facility room where they confined Mikan was just as ignored as everything else.

But Natsume found out about this place... He discovered it during one of his missions by accident. It lead to many different areas of the mafia division and was very convenient in using for easy access.

Luckily, there was one in the forest in the outer division. He soon discovered other paths as well.

But that was a long time ago.

It seemed so long ago here in this suffocating darkness all around. And he just couldn't be sure which path lead back to the forest... The place was starting to look like a maze, quiet befitting for what the man had named it---the Labyrinth.

"Natsume... Why are those fires blue?" Mikan's weak voice floated over to him in a near-whisper, shaking him off his own train of thoughts. She was indicating the two blue fires hovering on each side of him.

The fire-alice wielder seemed to debate on telling her, but he said it anyway.

"I left my alice-control mask..." he felt Mikan twinge with alarm behind him and tried to soften the blow, "The blue fire uses less energy and I might need it when somebody attacks."

From behind him, he heard her audible gasp of alarm. It didn't work. She was still worried. And a worried Mikan was bound to do something drastic soon.

"Don't be stupid," he said, "You're getting it all wrong. I came here to save my conscience, after all you wrote..."

"Oh, that." a little laugh. "...Anyway, thank you for rescuing me Natsume... Really." he felt her relax and he heaved a sigh of relief.

"Tch. I'd be haunted by my conscience forever if I didn't..." he glanced at her from the corner of his eye and was worried at her condition. She felt very light and weak behind him. "...Just save your chat, polka-dots. You'll need it when we get back... then you can annoy everyone as long as you like." he muttered.

There was something in his voice that was so considerate, Mikan couldn't help but appreciate it.

"Natsume..." she murmured.

"What?"

"You really are a nice person... You know that?" she said tiredly but appreciatively.

momentarily stunned.

"Tch." he managed, sounding gruff and indifferent, "Yeah, nice enough to lug your heavy bulk..."

But he smiled. It was the first time someone told him he was nice...except for Ruka, that is.

Carrying Mikan around made him blissfully at ease, as if everything was going to be all right now that he has her in his arms... There were dangers to be faced later on, but he had this moment to enjoy and lavish.

The lulling, soft blue glow of the fire was soothing in the darkness that wasn't complete, the cooling breeze gentle to Mikan, as she lay nestled in the fire-alice wielder's warmth. She imagined she was in front of the fireplace during one of those wintry nights---but this was a whole lot better.

It was perfect.

Natsume came back for her, and it was going to be all right...

The darkness around her was suddenly consoling to her weary soul.

**- o -**

_Moments later..._

Natsume couldn't be sure which path to take in the dark.

But that wasn't the cause why he's suddenly uncertain… It was Mikan, who seemed to keep coming alive then fainting like dead behind his back, worming up his thoughts and occupying most of his concentration so focusing on the path was hard.

He has to hurry.

Never mind which path---

but no, he did mind. Because any path could lead them back to the mafia's waiting arms. He has to choose the one that will return them to the forest, or the mid-section, where the team was sure to be waiting for them and not somebody else.

He has to decide---quick.

Natsume made a rough estimation of the two intersecting paths before him... Everything seemed fuzzy all of a sudden. Nothing like this has ever happened to him before...

The wind was blowing on the eastern path---Alright, that's got to be it.

He went to the eastern path and made his way around the darkness, suddenly queasy for no reason at all.

He had a bad feeling about this. Usually he relied on his instincts more than anything else in deciding something during moments like this... And the chances it ever made mistakes was quite a few. Mikan stirred a bit on his back, not so much as a move he felt, but he grew alarmed. Natsume knew nothing about fainting except that it was a state of unconsciousness, but her immediate danger weighed on him like a big block of cement instead of a feather-light baggage behind his back, and it was upsetting him by the minute that it was affecting his decision.

He strode, sweating profusely in the darkness with only the two flickering blue lights as his guide. The annoying, ugly idiot can be such a trouble... he thought with no real emotion except anxiety. And then he saw the first rungs of the ladder with the steel hatch above.

"It's here..." he mumbled with unconcealed relief, and glanced at the girl on his back, light as cotton._ "Hang in there, polka-dots...I'm not letting you sleep on me."_

He climbed the ladder with Mikan on his back, and pushed the steel hatch. The dim light flooded back into the hole... Natsume could make out nothing. Eager to lay Mikan on a safe place, he decided against his growing instincts and brought her up. When he had so much as laid the girl, he finally got himself to scan his surroundings...

They were in a different place.

He recognized it as the abandoned recycling building---

And it was within the borders of the Castle.

Just as he was about to turn about to leave, the steel hatch dropped back in place and the loud clang resounded through the empty building.

An exlclaimed surprise.

"Who goes there??" a mafia man's voice came not far from where they were. It was coming.

There was no time. It was a make or break contest. The fire-alice wielder gently laid down Mikan on a crate shielded from view and traced the voice. It called out again.

"Who the hell made that racket?! Come out or I'll shoot!" it warned and was followed by another call outside the building. There were two mafia's standing guard---probably more in due time. He made a quick decision.

Natsume emerged from hiding and before the guard could react, he toasted him with his fire. The hoodlum made no sound in dying but it was not as if the place was the size of a closet. The glow of the fire created became a beacon for the second mafia and the man knew well what had just happened.

But Natsume didn't saw him crept on another entrance, and managed to shoot Natsume on the shoulder. Fortunately, the mafia man had just practiced shooting and his aim was always off the target. But he was not going to make any blunder now. He positioned his aim again on Natsume, clinging onto his wounded shoulder. Shoot now when the boy had no time to react...

"No!" Mikan's voice called out from behind.

Just as the man was about to finish Natsume, she held out a hand and nullified the gun. The fire-alice wielder regained his senses and immediately fried him alive.

But he was wounded. Natsume held onto his bleeding shoulder and watched Mikan weave her way towards him, her features a caricature of worry and pain, as if she was the one wounded...

"Natsume... You're hurt!"

Yeah, he was aware of that.  
But something else was hurting more... and it showed through his blazing eyes filled with white hot fury.

Some mafia just shot him... It was unforgivable.

"Those bastards..." he cursed under his breath, stood up and strode to the exit.

There were other calls joining now that the the SOS has been fired. In just a matter of minutes, the others would catch the whiff of the battle going to take place...and then---

"Natsume... Don't..." Mikan called after him but he was already gone.

She was too weak... but the thought of not being able to help him weighed on her more.

She tried to stand and follow him when her last ounce of consciousness ran out and she collapsed on the floor,

unconscious.

**- o -**

The appearance of the Black Cat with his blazing eyes like never before spooked them.

But just for a while.

When Natsume emerged from the building where the gun shot came from, the hundreds of lined and bored mafia's stopped and stared at the boy... For a moment, they were seeing each other almost mutually, as if a line existed between them that only they knew of.

And then the war cry resounded.

Natsume braced himself and started piling up his energy for a blast. They were going to pay hell for doing this to him...

This was it.

Shoot to kill.

Before a single bullet could even land onto his skin, Natsume unleashed fire and directed it across the mafia guards, circling them, engulfing them in raging flames that disintegrated their insides in a matter of seconds. Screams of torment rang out in different tones of agony as the men were burned alive. And then only the remains of ashes lay mark to their presence.

It all happened in a span of 5 seconds, maybe lower.

The fires, being enormous, had caught some stray crate and spread. The surroundings of the area were marked with flames now----

Natsume glanced at his surroundings, blind at what he was seeing except for the presence of a live hoodlum wandering about that his alice had not caught. The pain on his shoulder was throbbing its dull, stinging pain, but his fury insulated him from it.

_"It's not over yet..."_

Some calls were coming off from the north. The fools had finally spotted him at long last. For a minute he thought he was going to be left bored again... The Black Cat smirked at himself and began to accumulate his alice for a blast.

Now, the Castle was the one covered with guards every square inch of the place---except the unnecessary ones like the abandoned recycling section that is---and the ruin and destruction implying every bit of trouble in it was finally proclaimed.

And then, some hoodlums who managed to hide away from the fire emerged and attacked him on all sides, only to be met by the Black Cat's flaring fist smashed into their faces. His mind blazed and brimmed with pure hatred as he continued batting at them.

He was too busy rehashing his anger at them to even notice a single hoodlum armed with a portable bazooka emerged from hiding behind the crate. The man was almost scared to death as he saw the infamous Black Cat pounding his fellow hoodlum to death, but instead of retreating to safety, the man found comfort in his weapon and he raised it to Natsume's direction. _"Say goodbye... flaring feline." _the man released the trigger and the missile ricocheted to his direction.

The Black Cat however, just finished hammering away the last one who dared assault him and saw the missile speeding toward him. He just had time to dodge it when it whirled past him---

He regretted it later as he watched with dread the bomb planting itself on the recycling building where Mikan lay.

The potent missile hit the roof of the building and exploded.

Pretty soon everything will go up in flames as the fire started to eat away the aluminum roof of the recycling building.

"No..." Natsume seemed to whisper in a kind of doom, then found his feet and rushed full speed ahead to the building where Mikan lay unconscious, the beginnings of roaring fires apparent on its facade.

"Mikan---!"

**It's the Skits:D**

Mikan, Natsume, Ruka and Hotaru: ... (silence)

Natsume: _Even the idiot's not whining..._

Ruka:_ We're not suppose to talk..._

Mikan:_ WOW! (ranting) I can hear your thoughts! Is this mind-reading?? (squeals) This is great! XD I have Kokoro's alice! That's so cool!!! Really, COO---(gets shot by heavy baka-gun) OO---W!_

Hotaru: _Mikan is still a loudmouth even in her thoughts... _

(minutes later)

Mikan, Natsume, Ruka and Hotaru: . . .

Mikan: _(cringing) hey... why aren't we talking:C_

Hotaru:_ It actually takes effort for Mikan to shut up for a minute... (sigh)_

Ruka_: The VC girl said something about not giving away 'spoilers'... so we're not to talk, just in case._

Natsume:_ 'Spoilers' huh. Like I care. That girl really thinks she can order us around like she owns us----_

VC: I HEARD THAT! (roar) I TOLD YOU FOR THE NTH TIME: I DO NOT OWN GAKUEN ALICE!

Mikan:_ Whoa!! That was louder than MINE! (gulp)_

Hotaru:_ Mikan, (matter-of-factly) in reality, your voice will always sound louder than anybody else._

Mikan:_ HuH:C Why is that?_

Hotaru:_ (bluntly) you were born with it._

Mikan: _But WHY??(whining now) WHY Hota---(shuts up when baka-gun hits) OW! You... (and the fight ensues...)_

Ruka: Give me a break... (walks away from telepathy room) annoying idiots...

Natsume:_ (sees Ruka leaving) Oh crap, now I get to take the full load of this---_

VC: Hehe. Natsume so cute! XD Just be a sweet boy and behave, okay?

Natsume:_ Tch. Pathetic. Like I'd care._

VC: (swooning) Awww... Isn't he sweeet? XD

Natsume:_ If I've been a little less of a villain, I would've... (controls himself)_

Hotaru:_ tchtch... (shooks head) That's a sad fate to get into._

(everyone's out of the telepathy room now..)

Ruka: Here. Another crumpled announcement.(hands Hotaru the paper and leaves)

Hotaru: "The next chappie would have 5 days delay...so that would be on Monday. smiley."_ What's up with the "chappie"_?... the fool... ...Can't even do simple arithmetic. (hands the paper to a fuming Natsume) Translate it.

Natsume: What in blazes?! (snatches the material) ...damn, why do I have to put up with this... (reads it after a while) The "hidden meaning" here... _(??) This is not even in morse code. It's gibberish...! ..But I think I understand this beguiling handwriting_...(bluntly) the fickle-head meant that she doesn't know when it's due but it's probably between the 23th and 28th.

Hotaru: Guessing games again...

Ruka: (disturbed) hmm... It's probably those internet connections...

Mikan: (idea-bulb lights up) It's vacation time! XD That's why.

Ruka: ...and meanwhile, we'll avoid spoilers. So no talking!

(everyone hushes up.)

Ruka: (puzzled) _now, this is a change... I wasn't even serious. _;D Huh.


	11. Chapter 11: Keeping the Fire Within

**Chapter 11: Keeping the Fire Within**

Meanwhile, Narumi and Tobita lead by Sumire in her cat-dog transformation, were following the tracks that led to the Mafia headquarters.

It was a long way and they would have to pass through the thick forest which enshrouded the infamous gangster realm within.

The forest was dark and brooding at night and only the dim illumination of the moon told them where to set their footing next.

"Oh... Is this going any farther than it already is?" Yuu complained when his hair tangled up with the branches. "Sumire, what are you doing?"

The cat-dog transformation girl seemed to have seized up to an abrupt halt and was sniffing the air speculatively, almost puzzled. It looked like she can't catch some smell.

"What is it, Sumire?" her sensei asked out worriedly.

"Something---" she muttered, sniffing out distractedly, as if afraid to lose some kind of scent, "It's---Shoot!" she cried, stomping on the ground in annoyance.

"Sumire, what's the scent?"

The cat-dog transformation alice wielder gave them a defeated look and sighed, "Natsume's scent... It keeps disappearing and popping out in the air..!" she wailed miserably and slumped on a tree, "Some nut here made a confetti of this area with anti-cat/dog powder smell!"

The fact sinked into the two males quite sluggishly. Yuu inclined his head, puzzled.

"It's probably for the K9 dogs..." Narumi said ponderingly after a while.

"What?"

"...Or perhaps the police dogs who track the place." Narumi explained, "In case a chase ensues, it won't lead to their place, for that matter."

"Oh right... That makes sense."

Silence.

"Oh... How are we going to find it now??" Sumire pawed the air in annoyance, "This forest is, like---the biggest in this city!"

"It won't be long before the academy even discovers we've gone..." Yuu added.

"Sensei?"

"I only charmed the guard at the gate... Perhaps tomorrow, the spell would be gone..." Narumi said, which only aggravated the situation.

"And then, it will be for nothing." Yuu was thoroughly in the dumps now.

silence.

"But we don't have a tomorrow!" Sumire angrily snapped, "We must go now! Natsume's life is at stake, don't you know that??"

Silence. Too slumped in depression...

"Oh, give me a break! Snap out of it!" Sumire wailed exasperated, "If you two are just going to sit around like ducks, I'm moving!"

"But what are you going to do?"Yuu asked her, somewhat gaining leverage and a spark of interest.

"Well, look for some kind of way except using my alice..." Sumire replied matter-of-factly, "Rather than just mop around, I might as well do something..." she said, skulking away into the night to look for something she didn't know what.

silence...

Narumi was thinking about what she said rather deeply, as he considered it.

"_Yes, every moment counts. What am I doing?" _Narumi reprimanded himself when a sudden thought came to him.

"I've got it!"

"What is it sensei?"

"If I recall it correctly, there's a path in this woods which leads to the main road. It's supposed to guide lost travelers along the exit..." he trailed off, pondering.

"But what's that got to do with anything about finding that gangster headquarters??" the cat-dog transformation alice said.

Narumi faced her, "For one thing, we are left with no other choice." he told her matter-of-factly, "The path is our only lead through the gloom in this forest. Seeing as we are just lying idly here, might as well move it. Don't you agree?"

"Y-yeah... I suppose you're right." Yuu said after considering it for a while.

And so, they move along with their sensei guiding them. A moment later they could make out a dirty, worn-out road beyond them... It looked like it hasn't been used for a very long time.

Upon seeing the road, Narumi exclaimed in agitation. "To the path. We must hurry..!"

Truly, they have lost precious time. And with every moment lost is equal to the danger of Natsume's life...possibly Mikan's too.

But to their dismay, there was a road block ahead which stretched along the length of the forest so there was no way to get around it.

"No..." it was cry of submission to their doom.

"Natsume..." Sumire started to sag into tones of misery.

But their teacher was undaunted by the obstacle that lay before them. "We must find those two...immediately!"

"Why sensei?" Sumire had to ask. It was all starting to turn out to be one, long-winded parade to her.

"Or it might be too late...for Natsume, Mikan or the both of them."

Gasps.

"Natsume's alice of fire is controlled by his earrings," their sensei said grimly, "and when he goes to missions, by his mask. The mask most especially serves as a floodgate that controls the flow of his alice. He always wears his mask when he goes to missions to deal with enemies... But without it, there is no assurance as to how long his life could take the strain---"

"No! Narumi-sensei, don't say that!" Sumire near tears.

Narumi seemed to gather some of his strength to hold on. Matter-of-factly, he continued "Then we must find a way... Or the consequences may be worst than it already is."

From the shade of the tree branches, protected from the shadows of the night stood Persona... And at their discussion, he hurried away without awaiting their next moves. The same urgency was in his strides as he made his way to the headquarters...

**- o -**

_At the mafia headquarters..._

The fire ignited at the middle division of the headquarters rung out its SOS signal throughout.

Smoke wafting out from the explosion on the building mingled with the gunshots and other sounds of the battlefield and implied all the warnings it needed broadcast.

And this time, it made sure everyone knows what's going on.

Especially the Boss.

"What's going on out there??" the Boss cried out from his bed. The explosion incident thoroughly washed away the ecstatic moment, and he was determined to find out who's making the racket and give him a good beating.

"It's the Black Cat, Boss!! And some of those academy freaks!" the informer was scared and panicky.

The whores and other people in the room began to scatter and depart, like who would those who smelled trouble brewing.

"The Black Cat??" his throaty voice incredulous. Of all the enemies, it had to be him... That boy could get overbearingly tenacious sometimes, dedicated to fulfilling his mission. At this rate---

"Hold him off! I'll inform the others on the mid-section for backup!"

"But Boss..!" the informer whined, "The middle division is---"

"Argh.. You blundering fool! I'll go there myself!" impatient and eager to rid of the problem, the boss got himself off and rushed to the exit, never hearing his informer's explanation.

"But the middle division is in tatters..." his voice trailed off but he shrugged resignedly, not bothering to chase after his boss.

_"No use delaying the inevitable, eh? It is his kingdom afterall. Let him go down with it." _the informer thought and laughed aloud, packed his belongings and prepared for getaway. He was pledging to renew his ways anyway.

All around, the flames began to spread, catching the tails of buildings and setting it on fire. Up above the misty moon lost its radiance as the first batch of dark clouds blanketed the sky with its eerie glow...

**- o -**

The Boss scampered amidst the deserted grounds of the middle-section, dread flooding him in waves.

No one was around.

Tsubasa and the team decided to hide the unconscious bodies someplace, and then alert the authorities later on. The Boss saw his deserted grounds, deprived of life and any signs of activity and began to cry in abject misery at their doing.

"M-m-my...M-my men!!" the ogre cried babyishly.

He was helpless now without his cronies to protect him. But suddenly, he was possessed with a different kind of fervor, a burning drive that spew away all the predicaments of the moment.

"The Black cat..!" it was a growl coming from him. The Boss erected himself from the ground and rushed to the transmission room...

When he reached the place, his eyes scoured the wires of telephones and communication gadgets in a tangled heap and finally found what he was looking for--

He grab the cellular phone that would instantly connect his call to the mafia's of the other city and then----

_thump._

The Boss looked in bewilderment as the phone he held lifted high into the air as if by some imaginary trick. Somewhere around the room a light flicked on...

"You...!" The leader of the mafia exclaimed, puzzled and angry at the same time as he finally got all the answers he needed.

And Tsubasa smirked back at him, "Yes, us."

And the last thing the Boss knew was seeing Anna's black, murderous-looking pie of one week nightmare slumber.

**- o -**

The derelict recycling building didn't look so abandoned anymore, as the flames licked its walls and caressed its metal shingles like a passionate lover, unwilling to cease its tirade once started. The fires ate what was left of the roof and the sounds of falling debris from inside resounded.

"Mikan---!"

Natsume threw himself against the roaring flames that harmed even a fire alice wielder like himself, but he didn't care about that. He didn't care about the burns and injuries he would later attend to as one thing burned in his mind like everywhere around him.

"Mikan...!"

His calls were unanswered amidst the inferno, and he begun to feel sick with dreaded premonition.

The fire alice wielder was recalling his childhood memories at the last minute... It was because of him that he lost the people he loved-----

No, he can't let this happen...

Not again.

_"Not Mikan...!" _he thought feverishly, and with wild determination, he lounged himself into the final line of flames in front of him inside the premises of the building, and landed with a heavy thud on the floor.

"Argh..." he cried out in pain and started to cough at the smoke. He regained his balance and darted his eyes frantically around when his sight caught a pale flesh sticking out of a fallen debris...

Panic leaped into his heart like never before as possibilities crossed his mind:

Dead, breathing or fatal?

One way to find out...

"Mikan!" Natsume jumped to her place, ignoring the stinging agony on his shoulder and the heat all around him. It all felt like being cooked alive in an oven. The raven-haired boy lifted the debris on top of her body and flung it off the side even though it looked like it weigh about twice his size.

The flames were growing in intensity now... And it was coming near.

"Mikan! Mikan!" somehow, he shrugged her awake before attending to the roaring flames all around him, fighting off the hysteria bubbling into his consciousness.

And that was when a huge piece of metal fell down from the ceiling towards their place.

**- o -**

Narumi, Sumire and Yuu saw the smoke from afar, and quickened their pace, all the while Narumi praying it wouldn't be too late. Now that the beacon was lit, it would be easy to locate the place...

But the question was, if they would make it on time.

_"It musn't happen! It can't happen again..!"_

From afar, the audible sound of a thunder crackled with deafening loudness.

**- o -**

The mafia lying around the castle stirred and panicked upon seeing the recycling building and several other buildings on fire. The fires caught most of the outside border, and the pack of hoodlums, with their Boss gone and no one to give them orders, began to scatter us well, fleeing to safety.

Some may have gone but majority of the mafia stood their ground, unfazed by the armageddon happening all around them...

They knew the perpetrator was still inside their territory. And their instincts would not allow it with every bit of their dying breath.

The raging flames were surged by the upcoming tempest, but they could make out a figure emerging through the hollow, pitted depths of inferno where the explosion came from---

It was a figure, carrying a body of a girl in his arms... walking in slow motion... Or had they imagined it with all those dancing flames in the background?

But no, this was _different..._

It almost looks as if the fires were goading the figure coming toward them, helping him for the task that lay ahead. The fires everywhere and around molded with the figure, and they appeared as one to the hoodlum's eyes from afar.

And they instantly knew the Black Cat.

...except that his earrings are gone,

and his shirt lay in tangled rags at his sides, exposing his bare, chiseled chest----

and he had a look in his eyes that made them want to scream bloody murder.

But the gangsters had embodied the mafia code in their genes... They also had tough guts to hang onto.

They braced themselves against their foe, just as fierce as the fire alice wielder.

Natsume saw this with understanding and gently placed Mikan on the ground beside him and scanned the enemies---

It was not a throng, it was a battalion.

The alice he used a while back at the falling piece of metal was quiet a lot...

If he had not removed his earrings on time, his alice would not have been enough to pushed the huge metal's weight out of the glass window of the building where it was hurled outside, producing a gaping hole that lead to the grounds. The fire then was already closing in, and having no other foreseeable escape, Natsume carried Mikan and escaped through the hole.

He glanced at the mafia closing in on them...

He has to decide quickly.

The amount of alice he used was enough to make him feel utterly weak and drained, but he couldn't afford Mikan to get hurt... Not in a million years. The stupid idiot may be as annoying as hell, but for some reason, no matter what his mind told him, he couldn't just leave the hapless little girl alone...

For whatever it was worth----

_No, _

she was worth everything... Even his dark, shrouded life.

_"And polka-dots doesn't know... That's a shame." _the thought brought a faint smirk on his lips one last time, in a moment that would be the final bout of everything.

_To protect the people he loves... And this girl was his number one._

The thought blazed at him and that finally decided it.

This was it.

Make or break.

Natsume stepped forward in a moment that was eternal, when raging flames from his body emerged, encircling him and grew in magnitude until it was big and fiery enough. It engulfed the enemies in a sudden, sweeping motion...

For an instant, a sudden hush enveloped the surroundings as the inferno blazed and ravaged living and non-living in its path, disintegrating everything its field encompassed that nothing was left except the hot ashes in its wake.

Everything was silent thereafter...

There were no signs of activity to be seen.

And then, it began to rain.

The heavy pouring rain appeased the fresh raging fires and washed away the remnants of the battle.

along with the chastising rain, through the soiled earth dissipated Mikan's drugged effect, purifying and revitalizing her body to consciousness, as she opened her eyes to the coldness that awakened her...

**Skits, **_**in a vain attempt to be funny:**_

Mikan: (wondering) HEY! VC is gone... I wonder what happened?

Ruka: (sees) Down in the dumps again...

Hotaru: (munching on cupcakes) She's brooding on how she has violated Gakuen Alice's story.

Natsume: And I thought the fickle-head doesn't own us?

VC: (wailing somewhere in a corner) I'll never see the light of fanfiction again...! (continues to wail)

Natsume: (shrugs indifferently) The idiot gets disappointed at a sudden drop of temperature.

Ruka: (alarmed) Hold it or she'll probably quit writing!

Mikan: (sounds siren) All hands on deck! XD Yosh! (raises her sleeves) All right, no crying!

Hotaru: (bluntly) This is a 'fan's fiction', right...

Ruka: Yeah. You're just doing your job.

VC: (looks at them teary-eyed) Really?

Everyone: Yeah!

(and everyone's thinking---)

Mikan: _She'd better not quit. Those Howalons---_

Ruka: _Or_ _I'm not going to get a new role... or even Mikan._

Natsume: _How many times do I have to die? Or translate fickle-head's beguiling handwriting?_

Hotaru: (eating cakes without a care) _She won't dare quit.. _(pats her baka-gun)

(5 seconds later)

VC: (wipes away fake tears) okay! I'll continue!! XD

Everyone: (heaves sigh of relief) Good!

VC: ehehe... I was just faking it---(gets headshot by baka-gun) OW!

VC: (rubs head) sheeeesh... alright..! XD I'll do the announcement.

Everyone: You'd better!

VC: okay! give me 3 days delay! XD ...I guess...

Everyone: (mutters) fickle-head...


	12. Chapter 12: The Beginning of the End

**Chapter 12: The Beginning of the End**

The rain was pouring in cold drops, washing away the remains of the battle into the earth and its bowels. It continued to pour relentlessly, beating down on the soiled earth, unmindful of the requiem that had took place at the last minute.

Mikan awoke in a haze of vision, the cold rain falling into her face... As consciousness finally dawned on her with a grim reality.

"_Natsume!"_

She tried to adjust her eyes to the gloomy light of dawn, filtering into the dark clouds as the incidents flowed to her like a video fast forwarded...

"_The building... He went out... I wanted to help him, and then I..." _she stopped in horror, "_I remembered he carried me, but it's all so fuzzy! No..."_

It was Natsume...

Mikan got up in an instant and frantically scanned the surroundings, her heart leaping in her chest when her sight snagged on a pale figure on the ground.

"Natsume..." she whispered hoarsely in a kind of unbelieving doom, then scrambled into a run to his place, tears suddenly choking her windpipe as she recoiled for breath. Possibilities flashed into her mind with such grim reality, infusing her with its dose of lament.

She was faintly aware of further shouts from the east as the mafia discovered the thorough invasion and was checking to see if there were left overs.

They were coming now... But Mikan didn't care.

"_He can't die...! He can't die..!" _the thoughts were coming far away in a distant place.

All she knew in her heart was Natsume, the perverted moron, and he will never tease her again, or give butterflies in her stomach or----

"No...!" she wailed distantly as she reached his place and collapsed on the wet ground beside his body.

The flood of tears finally made itself known and poured from her cheeks, mingling with the salty rain.

She roughly cradled him on her lap, her long hair falling in tangled strands to his pale face, trying with all her loud anguish to rouse him from the state he was in.

"Natsume! Natsume..!" it was a cry of a person who seemed to have lost everything.

No, he can't die... He musn't die, even if it was for her sake... She won't allow it with every bit of her dying breath.

They were in this together... The moron won't get away so easily from her, after all he's done for her----

And then there were movements.

There were signs of movements in his features, as he stirred a little and fluttered his eyes, half open.

"Mikan..." he whispered hoarsely.

And the laughter bubbled out of Mikan as she released all the tension she felt at the last moment, calling herself ten kinds of fools for thinking he was dead.

"Natsume..!" she was crying tears of bursting joy, all the sadness replaced with gargantuan relief in a sudden rush as she mentally kicked and howled at herself for even thinking the thought.

"...You're... safe..." Natsume seemed to smile up at her teary face... _genuinely_ smiled directly at her soul. . .

And then the smile slipped.

Mikan saw with immense dread Natsume's smile slowly slipped... and she felt his hands fell limp from hers.

"_This can't be happening---!"_

"Natsume...!" she cried, "Natsume!!" her voice was loud enough to rouse the dead. She shook him _hard_, trying with all her renewed strength to make him come back...to no avail.

The fire-alice wielder's pale face was devoid from expression, his eyes shut tight and the once moving lips placid and pale, like the rest of him...

The fire in him was extinguished.

"No..." she whispered.

And then the impact of his dead crushed into her heart as she reminisced all the times he had teased her, when he had meant to protect her from harm caused by her own brashness.

Thoughts flashed back from the eternal moments of time to the wet grounds where she lay cradling the raven-haired boy, her face just as pale and shock-filled.

"_Hey cherry-patterned."_

Tears streamed from her already wet cheeks in big droplets---

"_Oi, you'd better not get us into trouble with that stupid brain of yours..."_

and started to fall freely into the soaked earth---

"_Just save your chat polka-dots. You'll need it when we get back and then you can annoy everyone all you want..."_

He had cared for her deeply. And she never noticed till the very end.

"Natsume..." she sobbed harshly in profuse grief, but only the rain and the deserted grounds lay witnessed to her anguish...

The nullification alice wielder clenched her fist in a death grip, yet she wasn't aware.

It all came back to her now...

"No..."

Mikan knew how he felt for her.

_And he's dead. _

"No...!" she whispered to the voice, "Natsume!!" her voice released it's anguish into the air... echoing and rebounding in all quality.

At that instant, a blinding blue ethereal light emerged from the two and swept across the surroundings, like a white film blanketing all impurities, as it cleansed and purified the wishes of its wielders...

**- o -**

"No... It has happened..!"

Persona was standing on top of a hill, and he arrived in time, panting, only to witness the event he dreaded the most. A look of prophesied doom was apparent on the features of his masked face, as he stared at the phenomenon of blue, swirling lights happening on the ground below, not daring to move in fear for himself... and the others.

**- o -**

Narumi saw the scenery unfolding before his very eyes, and he stopped, somewhat mesmerized.

"Narumi-sensei! What's---" Yuu stopped short upon seeing the ghostly blue lights twirling gracefully from the distance and rose to the heavens, like a living thing. He couldn't help but blurt out, "WHAT is that??"

Sumire bumped behind his back, as he stopped abruptly, and turned to join them in their stare.

"What is that thing?" Sumire gaped back, "It's beautiful... But it appears---_alive_."

They were viewing the spectacle on top of a hill overlooking the entire, forsaken headquarters, just a short distance till they reach it. The blue, lace-like lights swirled, tangled and danced into the heavens above, its long length slithering like silk in the air that was its platform, the length glittering like bits of fused diamonds in one single, eternally long strand that caressed and gently fondled the surroundings with its faint glow, while the entire area was bathe in its delicate light.

"The Purging..." Narumi whispered to nobody, "It has happened..."

The two stared at him, willing him to move on with the explanation. But he didn't budge.

It was as if he was hypnotized.

Calls were coming in from the south path.

"Narumi-sensei!" it was Tsubasa's and the other team heading towards him, "You're here!" he said when he had catch up with them.

The members of the rescue team came hurrying to their elder, and also noted the strange scene taking place. Nobody said anything for a while as they stared, immerse at what they were seeing.

"What is that?" Tsubasa whispered.

"Heaven knows... But it sure looks eerie." Misaki shivered beside him.

"I'm worried..." Anna began and started to move down towards the light when Narumi halted her.

"Don't go near that light..."

The academy students looked back at him with something like anxiety and bewilderment etched on their faces. That finally got the blonde teacher perked up.

_If they knew---_

"Let's not be hasty." he told them, "Don't get too close to that light... We're not even sure what it is."

They lay there for what felt like an eternity, observing the living light that danced in the atmosphere. Their words were robbed from them as they watched, lacking any explanation or comment to start a decent conversation. On one corner, Yuu was fidgeting uneasily and was the only one who made his emotions show from inside. The rest of them were speechless and unmoving.

But the light suddenly subsided. The group stopped, their reactions varying from mild confusion to concealed relief.

"Sensei... It's already subsided. Is it all right to move now?" someone asked after a while when no one spoke. It was as if a spell had come over them.

Narumi didn't reply.

Finally, Sumire asked the question on everyone's minds, "What was that, anyway?" she glanced up to her sensei, and he knew he can't ignore, "Narumi-sensei, do you know?"

Even then, the blonde teacher knew it must be kept confidential if it meant leaving them away from potential harm, so he just said, "I can't be sure..."

From behind him, Tsubasa stirred at his reply. Even the older student knew their teacher was hiding something... "You can't be sure?"

Narumi seemed to think about what his latter reply has wrought, and he switched to other topics instead, "We'll just have to find out won't we?" he told them, indicating the deserted grounds below.

They didn't like the tone of his answer, but it was enough to make them forget he knew something about that phenomenon. The group then made their way down uneasily, as if every bit of reluctant to go about with the decision yet it was necessary.

It was just before the blue light happened; they were done disposing the boss on the place where they kept the other mafias, then went to the outer division to reorganized their lot. They were just getting to the forest when the deafening explosion resounded from the Castle, and they rushed to the nearby hills above to take a good look at what happened.

And now that they were here to get some answers, they suddenly felt like it wasn't necessary at all as they got a first look on the area before them.

It was horribly deserted.

There were no signs of life, or any stirrings of recent activity... Only the pouring rain made its gentle, droning sound that added to the melancholy surrounding the place.

Several stray crates, cargo boxes, pieces of fragments and ashes lay scattered in a muddy pile everywhere, some of which still has traces of fire smoldering on its surface which the rain failed to extinguish. These, added to some other trash and the chaos apparent on the area, gave hint that it was not a ghost town.

Other than that, there's the deafening silence all around.

The academy group looked around in discomfort, eyeing everything to look for any signs of life---Yes, even if it was a dying mafia body.

Anything to ease their growing ill dread of the abnormal situation...

Because it was not only appearing to be an ordinary ghost town. Something came here that swept the traces of life left, even the dead bodies that were supposed to be scattered around.

And yet there was nothing to be seen.

Ruka felt shivers down his spine and knew the others felt the same. For a moment, he found himself not thinking about the two people he care for the most as he worked up his mind to explain what just happened to this place. They were trudging in a tight knit group through the Castle grounds now, their gait slow and uneven with discomfort.

Tsubasa, however, was the less affected among the group. He usually was the thinker-type, one who analyzes the situation before delving into the emotions involved in it. And he was puzzled at this, especially the way their teacher behaved. The others looked like they were walking in a trance, spooked by the animosity of it all, and he decided to break through it.

"We have reached the Castle grounds." he announced the obvious to the lot and they all turned to him, their disposition suddenly diverted away from the unknown. He continued with his ice-breaker voice to remind them of their purpose, "Mikan and Natsume are probably still somewhere around here, as the recent cues have told us."

Mikan's friends stirred uneasily. What the elder student was suggesting here was that they could be dead , alive or worst, vanished like the rest. That broke through their spooked reverie. Tsubasa looked at their mien shifting from uncertainty-filled to that brimming with purpose and he knew he succeeded.

Sumire was the one who spoke first, "Yes... You're right! We must find them!" she said aloud, and turned to the other members of her Natsume-Ruka fanclub.

"What are you all staring at??" she brawled at the stock-still girls, "Do we have a ghost here? NO! Find Natsume and that idiot NOW!" she barked her orders and the girls quickly scattered about.

That finally got the others going as they realize what they all came here for, and it certainly wasn't to investigate a phenomena. They searched out in groups, combing the area of the Castle grounds.

_-after a while...- _

Someone came running frantically back to the group. He had found something.

"Hey guys! Look!!" he shouted, beckoning them to go to him.

They were all done with the searching and have assembled. Immediately, they followed the student's directions and found what he was indicating.

From afar, they could make out Mikan and Natsume's body, lying next to each other.

The bothersome Skits, _for the last time:_

Ruka: ...

Natsume: ...What is it?

Ruka: ...There's no noise. Isn't it strange?

Natsume: (corrects him dully) You mean ranting?

(rumbling from afar)

Mikan: Nat-su-me!!! (gets shot by baka-gun)

VC: Annoying #2!! (gets shot by baka-gun)

Yuu: Party pooper #3!!! (gets shot by baka-gun)

Sumire, Nonoko, Anna, others: and ETC.!!! (gets shot by upgraded baka-gun)

Everyone: Oooow...! (glares at the girl) HOTARU!!

Hotaru: (reloads baka-gun) I hate the noise... And besides, haven't you heard the notice?

Ruka: Oh, that's right! I remember now!

Natsume: Hmpf. So the next chapter would be due soon... Like I'd believe that fickle head.

Ruka: Hm.

Mikan: (happy) We're celebrating!! Yey! Everyone's got their voices back!

Natsume: Don't get too cocky. We're not to say any spoilers.

Mikan: (ignores him) XD VC says she "wants to get it over with, I've got a vacation you know!"

Hotaru: ...thus the immediate publishing of the chapters, huh...?

Ruka: But that's not really it, right?

Mikan: (happily smiles at him) No. You'll see.

VC: (whining) why do I get quoted? XC

Everyone: ...because you said so!

VC: Right... (brooding) Again, the next chapter is due soon.

Ruka: "soon" means "a few days" right?

Natsume: ...if you're going to look into the VC dictionary, that may imply a thousand other meanings. (matter-of-factly) And even then, it may be a lie.

Hotaru: (butts in) Thus, the "fickle-head"...

VC: heehee... Natsume-kun, you make me sound bad. XD

Everyone: You have no idea...

VC: aww-kay. :D Enough about that. It's really due soonest:D It's not yet the ending, neh? (wink)

Happy vacation to all! Meanwhile, the revisions are on...


	13. Chapter 13: The Untitled Ending

**(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)**

**Chapter 13: The Untitled Ending**

"_Purging Theory, -updated-_

_-The Purging, definition-_

_The Purging, which means 'cleansing' or 'purifying impurities', is a force of blue or white light whose effects may either be harmful or beneficial. It is caused by a powerful, bonding reaction between two compatible alices and of which effects mainly depend upon the nature of the wielder's state of mind._

_-Compatibility of Alices-_

_The factors of the compatibility of the alices is yet to be classified and distinguished, considering the diversity and classes of alices available, but it is believed to be linked with the alice's nature to counter with the other. _

_There were past occurrences of compatible alices initiating a voluntary purging, of which results were covered by the academy, and one occurrence of an involuntary purging, which was the first of its kind. _

_Recent findings have been gathered enough to conduct an experimentation regarding this, and is currently ongoing. _

_-Initiation of the Purging-_

_Alices are known to be unique abilities of chosen individuals, the power of which is rooted mainly to the wielder's emotions to handle it. Thus, it is mainly initiated by the two compatible alice wielder's emotions._

_For example, two blood-related alice wielders who are compatible have initiated a strong bond between them, say, strong emotions that ties them together. The Purging will occur upon close contact with the other wielder._

_-Types of Purging-_

_On the course of the studies made, two types of Purging were discovered: the voluntary and involuntary._

_The voluntary is initiated by the two wielder's wishes and can be manipulated at will. Since the Purging concentrates on purifying or ridding the wielder's mind of impurities, it will mainly eradicate or restore the causes of impurities with minimal or no damage done. Basically, it aims to restore peace on the two wielder's mindset._

_The involuntary is not controllable and has a tendency to over react. It is a million times stronger than voluntary. The involuntary Purging's use is very potent and efficient but the problem is, no one knows what will happen if this occurs. It transpires at death, when a major outburst of emotions is experienced by either of the wielders. Immense grief or love or a combination of both merges to react with each other and form a very potent forcefield aiming to eliminate the causes of the impurities on the wielder's minds, without further notice, deeming it a very powerful force to reckon and fear of. Its effects on the wielder itself is indeterminable._

_-First involuntary Purging-_

_Mischa and Ayne's Purging, the first of its kind, transpired centuries ago before the founding of the academy. It is said that this was the reason that led to the creation of the academy as a place of refuge for the alice users. _

_Mischa's Alice was the nullification type and Ayne's was of the fire Alice type, both of which were compatible with each other, hypothetically perhaps, for the nullifying alice counters the fire's extreme intensity._

_Records have noted that they may have been lovers, considering the emotion that accompanies it, with Mischa having unrealized feelings for Ayne and the latter who had shown it to her in every possible way except tell her straight. _

_Hypothetically speaking then, at the time of the war, since there were no means of controlling alices nor were there devices available, an incident occurred wherein Ayne used a tremendous amount of his alice to protect Mischa, and have died in the process. Since Ayne's alice of fire was of the uncontrollable kind and requires the use of alice-controlling devices, it is lavish in amount when released (see other notes on this: the Alice of Fire), thus depleting his energy greatly when he used it to protect Mischa, thereby ensuing the first ever Purging. _

_The Purging ensued, emotions were too great to handle, and thus it went out of control and ravaged the battlefield, eliminating the enemies. Thus the war was won despite the odds. But of the wielder's existence afterwards it was not confirmed..._

_Whatever may have transpired on that fateful day centuries ago can only be counted as a guess... Whether the two wielders who initiated the first and by far, the most powerful to date Purging have vanished or lived is but a matter that should be left to future academy historians._

_However, recent findings have been taken and it's only a matter of time before solid explanation will be provided."_

The blonde man paused in his lengthy writing and looked at the boy who sat on the table across him. He was humming patiently.

"What do you think, Maki?"

The brown-haired boy with his piercing aquamarine eyes stopped humming and viewed the blonde appreciatively, like satisfied. He got down from the table and took the copy of the writings to him. There was a faint mature air about him as he regarded the blonde-haired man with a level gaze.

"As always..." Maki grinned, all gallant and professional, "You sound every bit the scholar, Narumi." he told him and went to Narumi's place, sitting by the table with the tome of Legacy in front of him.

"Is it finished yet?" he inquired impassively but with a hint of impatience in his tone.

"Not yet." Narumi smiled ruefully back, "Will you be leaving soon?"

"...I will be if you don't hurry." the boy had the adult, demanding tone, honed through his countless meetings with the other senile elders and negotiations with the grown-ups. It didn't change the fact that he still had the appearance of a kid, though.

Maki Shigume was summoned to alice academy on an impromptu basis when he was in the middle of a grueling task set before him. It was his only known form of recreation from that other place and now he was called again to do another scheduled 'sealing'. This was growing to be fitfully annoying.

"Yes. Just a while..." Narumi told him, somewhat knowing what was brewing on the young one's mind. But he needed his further knowledge on this matter. After all, it was not his position to throw allegations without a basis.

"I need your opinions on this, you know."

"You already explained everything." Maki retorted curtly.

"Yes, but..." the blonde teacher reconsidered his questions, then pushed through, "What do you think about the academy's decision to let those two be?"

Maki was shock a bit. He hadn't expected that.

"I'm not one of the council... But I suppose it's all right." the lad had the stubborn quality of not liking to decide answers that he didn't bother concealing it in his tone. It was just like him.

"Why?" Narumi goaded. He knew he was irritating the boy but he had to consult a second opinion, and he was the only one available.

"Well, for one thing, that would keep the monitoring it needs for your research on the Purging... and it helps lessens the chance the involuntary occurs since they've got them covered. Right?" Maki placed his arms behind his head, like he usually was when deep in thought and smiled back to Narumi to affirm his notion.

Narumi smiled at the boy, impressed, "You've always been the brilliant analyst Maki."

"Who wouldn't be? ...After living so long, that would be enough to keep anyone."

Narumi sympathized ruefully, "It's tough being the fortification alice wielder eh? Besides prolonging your life, it's also interrupting your only recreation. That's too bad." he smiled at the scowling boy, "Well then, go on along" he begin to unpack his belongings, "I'm done with you."

"Hey, who was so eager to have me a while ago??" the lad retorted heatedly.

Narumi threw a silly little laugh, "Just kidding. You can stay as long as you want just don't forget to seal the tome. It is your duty after all." he finished with his matter-of-factly voice.

The fortification alice wielder sighed visibly. This life was turning out to be an abomination instead of a blessing, as he first thought it was. "Duty...Duty... It's like it every damn day. I ought to take a vacation." he muttered.

"You are on a vacation." the teacher corrected him.

"Well, yeah..! But it's the same anywhere. Like there are only two places I can go. That's not the life of boys my age...!" he argued.

"Now, when that's the truth, you should still be thankful..." Narumi went on, lecturing him with his lessons again that never seemed to change its lines, "After all, you've been given a second chance."

"Hmph. Yeah." he muttered like he always does, then broke into a resigned sigh, "Okay, you're right. I'm here to serve the academy..." he made a faux bow then went towards the tome to seal it.

"Oh, and Maki?" Narumi called after him.

The boy looked up from sealing the tome, "What's it now?"

"Say hello to everyone for me over there." Narumi smiled.

Maki flashed him back a relieved look. With a smile he said, "That's it? Sure. I'd be more than happy."

**-0-**

Long after the fortification alice wielder had gone, Narumi let his gaze drift to the grounds below where a bustling activity was happening. Several flocks of elementary students were playing touchball, using the one that enabled alices on it. Some of them were leaving now, due to a certain annoying girl who happened to obtain a new type of alice.

"Take that!!" Mikan applied a new force into her throw, ricocheting the ball wrapped in its peripheral white glow. It hit the other boy with a loud thud. He fell back in agony and retreated to the loser's side, apparently all interest lost. It went the same for the others too, as they watched from the side, their boredom visible on their features as they viewed the two who seemed to be the only one's enjoying themselves.

"It's not fa---ir!" the boy whom Mikan hit cried, "Her alice can't take a blow! She's invulnerable..."

Hotaru listened to the boy and merely sympathized in his indignant cry. During the last week, Mikan's alice progressed from nullifying alices to creating force barriers around her and also applying it to objects. And it was seemingly very useful in this kind of event.

_"No wonder..." _Hotaru smiled at the thought as she watched her best friend and Natsume exchanging balls. She knew very well they were enjoying every bit of their quarrelsome tirade. Not that she cared. From at least ten meters from her place, she could feel Ruka's piercing stare beside her, and he sure was not very happy about what she recently did. He was infuriated at her now, and to her amusement, she actually realized she enjoyed it. In a week or so, the chase would call a seizure, as it always does when Ruka has finally reached the peak of his patience, and she would be left bored again. So, enjoy it while it lasted, she thought and continued to watch the repetitious game without much interest.

The fire alice wielder was not using any of his alice by the last minute, but then the situation was getting annoying it required its use. But the jaunty girl was undaunted. She thrust the ball back with a blast of her newfound alice and it nearly threw Natsume off his spot, as he struggled to get a good grip on the ball. He held it in his hands and stared back at Mikan. That's it. She passed her line.

_"You're going to get it..." _Natsume thought and began to fire up his energy for a blast and met the nullifying alice girl's level stare in return. She sure was getting all cheery and lively after that incident.

"Bring it on!!" she bellowed back at him boldly, not a trace of fear or uncertainty in her mien. "Come on, you chicken!" this time, she was taunting him.

Natsume only smiled haughtily back and threw the ball. And for the nth time, it was happening all over again. As the flaring ball cut through its path speeding towards Mikan, she held out an outstretched hand and a barrier of hollowed light appeared, catching the ball and its force. But it was fused with more fire in it now that just her barrier alice wasn't enough to stunt its impact. She struggled, and then finally when the ball was within inches to her, she applied force into it and then----

Poof!

The ball disintegrated into ashes, the fire and force alice merged to react on the ball and cause it to blow up. The spectators on the side viewed this with no apparent emotion except boredom. This was exactly what they were predicting that soon, many had lost interest in the game, what with the balls that have to be replaced every time...

"Jinno-sensei will be mad... I bet the supply of the alice balls are dwindling right now." Anna told Nonoko sadly. And the girl nodded back in silence.

On the field, Natsume snatched the new ball from the cowering student beside him and began to fuse it with his fire. On the other side, Mikan was getting just as ready for it, as she braced herself in her stance, sweating lightly but prepared as ever.

The ball was thrown... The barrier cast... And like a broken record, it repeated its sequence.

Shouts from the side aroused as some were sprayed by the dusts of the disintegrated ball.

Narumi watched all this from above without really seeing, as he thought about the incidents of last time.

_"It has already been five weeks since that incident..." _he thought, reminiscing. The team had found Mikan and Natsume's body lying next to each other on the wet grounds of the Castle and was instantly besieged with alarm. But they were alive. Except for some minor bruises and blisters, they look perfectly fine and greatly defied the tragedy that should've been wrought upon them. The team took them to the hospital, and then they sent an anonymous call to the authorities on something about the hideout of mafia's on the forest. Later, tons of police cars came speeding into the headquarters, only to find gagged and unconscious mafias lie stacked on a warehouse on the outer divisions.

The rest of the lot was nowhere to be found.

Fortunately, as speculated by the team, nobody saw the phenomenon that occurred that night, since the forest was big and distance apart from civilization. They only hoped it proved true enough.

Mikan and Natsume recuperated in the hospital for five weeks straight, and during that time, the matter was discussed among the high councils of the academy.

Narumi still recalled it vividly... Their decision was almost presumptuous at most.

"Has anyone else gained knowledge of the incident?"

"No. Though I have spoken of its name, I have opted not to explain it to them, so they cannot have possibly understood what it was. There are speculations though, but that cannot be helped considering the rate of its occurrence."

"That is well. The council has decided to keep this matter within this faction to avoid further problems arising in this academy." the elder glanced at Narumi with his rheumy but firm eyes, "You know very well what will transpire should the students be aware of this, yes?"

"Indeed."

"Very well. The covert experiments will ensue, and fortunately, it will be nigh time then when answers will finally unfold."

"Meanwhile, we ask you to continue your research, Narumi."

Narumi nodded impassively, "I understand."

The elder prodded on, "Your alice grants you the knowledge regarding this. And do not worry, Maki and several other scholars will gladly lend you a hand."

"It is appreciated."

"That is all. You may leave."

Narumi had hesitated a little before speaking his mind, "What of Mikan and Natsume, then? I assume you have plans for them?"

The elder smiled faintly at him, "Not to worry. Since their alices were already been deemed compatible, as before you understand we had our speculations on this, but now that it has been acted, the decision was to pair the girl with the fire alice wielder's missions. It was on a consensus that this notion has been decided." the tone ended with its hint of finality in it. Narumi had then left the room, filled with an imperceptible foreboding, to which he shook off.

And now, looking at those two playing on the grounds below, he suddenly felt a sudden pang of relief and happiness for the two of them. The Black Cat won't have to fear for his life now that he has everything he could ever wish for...

_"The council decided to include Mikan on Natsume's missions... The Purging must've unleashed a newfound force on Mikan's nullifying alice. That force emanates to Natsume's alice of fire and serves as an amplifier in itself, but with its immunity effects bestowed upon it. So everytime Natsume uses his alice of fire, it won't drain his life like it usually would." _he paused in thought as he watched below, "_The compatibility of alices... Even just close contact with each other would initiate its effect. In this case, Mikan provides an affinity for Natsume's alice of fire, and at the same time, she has acquired a new alice that would be extremely useful for his missions."_ he paused in his train of thought. It was the scholars and council of the Alice Academy who decided on this. And they were right... But he couldn't help feeling that this was all for the selfish sake of the academy, minus the consideration for their welfare or any of the sort. The pair-up was decided not for Natsume's sake but for the convenience of it; The missions would be a breeze with Mikan's new alice and the Black Cat's death won't have to be a liability anymore. It was killing two birds with one stone, only this was worst than killing.The exploitation was as apparent as it was long ago, but it's not as if Narumi was in control of everything. The least he could do was carry on his principle---for the sake of what he believed in. And he knew the rest of the Alice teachers believe the same way.

"_The involuntary may not be as bad as it were, after all. I suppose it all lies upon the wielder's wishes. On Mischa and Ayne, then... after all, it is the first purging. But considering another involuntary Purging happened----well, Mikan and Natsume certainly didn't vanish. Perhaps their age has something to do with it..." _he sighed inwardly, _"Assumptions. Why haven't I thought of it before...? And how can compatibility affect lives? But if one comes into thinking, anyone can procure miracles for the sake of the ones they love..."_

He smiled at himself. _"Maybe Mischa and Ayne had lived..." _he was thinking the thought when a flashing sound came from behind. It was Noda-sensei, caught in one of his blinking spells again. He looked around the room in utter confusion when he saw Narumi.

"Narumi-sensei! For a while I thought I was going to be lost again..." he said in relief.

Narumi sympathized with his fellow teacher. His time-trip alice can be such a trouble sometimes.

"Where have you teleported this time, Nodachi?"

"What..? Oh..." Nodachi seemed to regain himself from his deep thinking and said, "It was strange... I really thought I've seen those two before." it was like he was talking to himself.

That pique Narumi's curiosity, "Do you recall the details?"

Nodachi was working his brain to that moment, "I remember a cottage..." he trailed off, and then suddenly snapped his fingers, "Oh right! It was a field... And a woman's voice..." Nodachi halted completely now, rubbing his temples as if having a headache. Narumi realized he was really trying to recall it.

He was about to dismiss Nodachi's time-trip place when the man muttered, "...She was angrily shouting 'Ayne'..."

Narumi stared at him, stunned. The time-trip alice wielder didn't seem to notice as he continued, "...I was so sure I've seen those two before... Now, where was that? I can't remember..."

"Noda-sensei!" Narumi's voice shook him of his reverie, "What is the time of the place? Was it after the first involuntary Purging?"

The other stared back at him in surprise. There was such urgency and excitement brimming in Narumi's voice, "If you mean the time, Naru, I cannot tell what..."

That seemed to seep Narumi's former feelings, "Then you can't be sure..." he said disappointed.

"Why Narumi?"

"It's Mischa and Ayne... They led to the key of founding the academy." he looked at him, "If they were alive, then I'd be sure about Mikan and Natsume---"

"And you can't be sure."

"Right."

"But I've seen them." he said encouragingly, "That could be before or after, right? Anyhow, Misaki will be here soon. He says you two were to discuss something."

Narumi only nodded. Then a knock sounded on the door.

"And I guess that's him. See you later, Naru."

Misaki entered and upon seeing the despondent Narumi, he opted to change what he was about to say.

"How are the two commencing?"

"The voluntary is yet to occur, considering that it had just begun. It takes time for them to be able to manipulate it. Meanwhile, we'll be keeping them along with the rest of the compatible alices..."

"Orders from the high council?" Misaki inquired, but he knew the answer.

"Yes... You know that this matter is kept only to the teachers and the other chosen ones, right?"

"Of course. What do you think will happen if they knew about the Purging? They'll be inventing ways to find their compatible alices, and soon enough they will use it. And when they use it and an involuntary occurs, that is a massive problem that will take its toll on all of us. Not to mention, the anonymity we are playing with the outside world."

"I know that. But those two are special..."

"Yeah, after all, they inherited Mischa and Ayne's alice. And they were the reason why alice academy is even here in the first place. I suppose the council feels that they owe the knowledge of the Purging to its founder and its descendants, at least."

"That's why the fortification alice wielders were tasked to seal that knowledge in a tome that was accessible only to nullifying alice wielders. And Natsume deserved to know."

Misaki stared at him.

"I knew the Purging would soon occur between them... I've read the tome long ago, but when I saw those two, it made my notion clearer. But then, I knew the time was not yet right, so I didn't tell them about the Purging. I was eager to know if they could initiate the voluntary anyway, then I could add it to my findings. But I wasn't expecting for the involuntary to occur... I guess I made a bad mistake in delaying to tell them."

"Not at all. It would've happened anyway. Perhaps they are reincarnates of Mischa and Ayne? I mean, the incidents are the same, aren't they?"

"We can never tell, can we?"

"No."

"By the way, have you seen Persona? That guy owes me something..." he seemed to say to himself, "Well, got to go, Narumi. Goodluck on that research."

Misaki nodded to him and left.

**-0-**

"Natsume, you cheat!!" Mikan wailed at the raven-haired boy across her.

He had just applied his fire on the sides of her uniform when she was about to cast her barrier alice so she was barely able to catch the ball before it landed on the ground. The sides of her uniform was singed by the flame, and revealed patches of skin underneath. But her skirt was the most affected, burnt nearly to her thighs, so that it would only take a whiff of wind to uncover what it concealed. Mikan was so immersed in the game that she wasn't even aware of the raven-haired boy eyeing her, nor of the fact that her legs were exposed.

"Hmm." he grinned, smirking naughtily. He was considering how fair her complexion was, but some of the cloth was blocking the way. Maybe reveal some more... he was thinking.

"Oh, I'm gonna beat you so bad..." she muttered at him, caught by the ambiance of their game, eventhough it lead nowhere with their constant fighting.

The other players of touchball finally reached the peak of their boredom and left long ago. They were the only ones playing in the deserted field. But it didn't matter. They were both enjoying this enough not to care.

She was only slightly burned by his fire, but it was enough to make her furious. Mikan started to double up her force on the ball this time, and aimed it at the smirking raven-haired boy.

_"And he's smiling!" _Mikan thought incredulously, as she was about to launch the ball, _"Why... I'll show you..! I'll make sure you---"_

"Floral-panties, what's taking you so long?" he said casually in his most provoking voice, still smirking, "And by the way, your panties are in full view."

The remark sunk slowly, when Mikan finally got herself to take a look at her tattered skirt and she barely managed to stifle a scream of humiliation.

"Eeeeep!" she cried, trying in vain to cover her legs. But instead of wishing the earth would just swallow her up, she felt dull annoyance creeping up inside her.

"Nat-su-me!" Mikan growled at him, pronouncing every syllable with a spat. But the raven-haired boy just kept smirking provokingly at her.

"You're going to pay!!" she bellowed, at the same time throwing the ball into his direction. It etched its path toward Natsume's way when an explosion occurred. For a moment, Mikan didn't understand what happened, trying to see through the smoke that befallen the area where that annoying fire-alice wielder was.

And then it cleared. He was gone.

The rascal had escaped! Curse him to the deepest, darkest bowels of Mikan's annoyance! That boy sure knows no limits in stirring her patience, Mikan was thinking dully.

From the distance, Natsume was walking casually with his arms crossed behind his head, still smirking contentedly.

_"That polka-dot's sure can't take a joke... It's high time she forgets about that endless game." _he sighed from sheer exhaustion and amusement. That heated touchball tournament was going on repeating its sequence, he was getting tired at seeing the same thing happen all over again. But Natsume enjoyed winning, and Mikan can't afford losing, especially to someone like him, so the game had no end.

And so, just to settle the matter, he tried to distract her by burning her side, but he wasn't expecting her legs to be exposed like that. Unfortunately or fortunately, he liked what happened, and it just aggravated the situation.

Natsume smirked when he remembered her expression, "_And I didn't realize she had good-looking legs... "_the unbidden thought occurred to him_, "In a few years, that could really change----"_

"COME BACK HERE, YOU PERVERTED MORON!" Mikan's voice carried along the deserted fields in a screech of utter annoyance.

"Hmph." Natsume only smirked. He's reached the cherry blossom tree where he first smiled at her, but he didn't even notice. It was as if someone else was taking over as he stopped and faced the incoming Mikan, rushing towards him clad only in her blouse and a little strip of covering below. He looked like he intended her to bump into him, what with that naughty smirk on his handsome face...

The brunette was eager to unleash her fury, but she wasn't expecting him to _stop!_

"Ah!" she heavily catapulted into his whole weight, throwing them both to the ground with a heavy thud as she thought fleetingly at the last second, _"He stopped! Why did he stop?! Now what! Back where we started!"_

Mikan regained her senses slowly, the impact causing her head to be dizzy for a while. Her legs were astride him and her face was on his warm chest as she dragged off to his face, and then skidded to a convulsing halt.

_She had just grazed her lips on his! _And worst, someone's hand was on her chest----

They were staring at each other, eyes wide. After a split second of infinity later, Mikan broke off, and stared back unbelievingly.

"Natsume!!" she could only scream her frustration, filled with mixed emotions. And then the long, raucous ranting began, Mikan batting her fist on his chest.

The raven-haired boy took all this with dull, unfaltering amusement on his face, seeming to lavish every moment of their fights. The flustered girl noticed her attacks were not reiterated and she halted too.

It was always suppose to be equivalent trade...

_"The moron's not saying anything...!" _she thought, surprised, and then she noticed the grin on his lips.

A _naughty _little grin on his lips.

_"He's actually liking it...!" _Mikan thought incredulously.

And yes, the raven-haired boy enjoyed every moment of her near-naked body on top of him, even the way she vainly tries to attack him with her fist. He continued to smirk back at her stunned features.

"You're actually _liking _me quarreling with you, don't you?" the brunette dared him to answer, "All this time, _you enjoyed _pissing me off..." the last trailed off, like one who'd realize she'd just made an awkward confession.

Natsume gave her a smirk in reply, but he was thinking, "_Oh how you wouldn't wish to know just how much I do..."_

Mikan, getting no reply, only felt her frustration building up dangerously. If he's not going to say anything, she'll make him.

"You...You're a rascal, you know that?!" she tried to say, annoyed at his disquieting features.

No answer other than that nasty smirk on his face.

"Answer me, you moron!" she cried, and began batting anew at his chest, totally infuriated.

"Ans----wha!?" it felt like someone had shoved her on the back----

"_Now, what is that soft----" _Mikan audibly gasped aloud as she realized what _just happened._

Unfortunately, her reaction time was that slow it took her a moment to realize Natsume had shoved her on the back with his hand and-----

_He kissed her!_

_"And quiet rudely at that..." _part of her mind thought fleetingly, but the rest melted away into a sea of dizzying pleasure. She was aware that his hands went to the small of her back, and with much fervor.  
And even then, she faintly remembered that day, ages ago...

_"He did it! It was not just a sudden action... He did it because---"_

And the rest of her thoughts were swallowed by the kiss.

She didn't care about the rest of the world as all her latter annoyance for the boy was forgotten.

_-a moment of infinity later...- _

Natsume drew back and smirked back at her still astonished face that was starting to regain its former annoyance.

"...I figured that would shut you up." he muttered, grinning at her.

And the brunette was thinking, "_He just kissed me! The arrogant, perverted moron just kissed me!"_

Mikan's mind was in a state of uproar, the voices in her head battling and celebrating at the same time.

"_Do it again! Do it again!" _

_"Utter revulsion! Of all the boys, he had to be the one!"_

_"Don't tell me you didn't like!! You were swooning."_

_"You could let the earth swallow you up now." _

"And I thought I was the one who liked getting into fights..." Natsume's sarcastic voice snapped her back into reality and she blinked at him. He was indicating their position, with Mikan still astride on top of him.

But instead of getting the expression he expected, Mikan grinned at him almost as naughtily. Unfortunately or fortunately, vibrations emit waves and Natsume's just emitted his to Mikan.

"Oh yeah? Try me." she dared with something like a devil-may-care in her voice.

Natsume, however, took the meaning the other way; that she wants another game of touchball. He started to rise with the grin still on his face when he finds himself shoved back on the ground. And before he even have time to be surprise, it was Mikan's lips pressing on his now, and to which he responded without complaint.

If life gives you lemon, you make lemonade. And he accepted his with much fervor.

**-0-**

_Somewhere, on the highest floor of the administration building of Alice Academy, in an alice-concealed room..._

"It requires time... Do you have the patience to await it?" Persona told the figure huddled on a chair by the stone fireplace. He was a middle-aged man with an air of supremacy in his disposition, to which he carried with pride.

He replied in a voice that was throaty and cracked but still has its dignified hint, "Perhaps... Nevertheless, they do not know of the real truth. I can dwell on that thought with a contented smile." he placed his golden eyes on the dissolving-alice wielder, "I trust you won't divulge this, Persona..."

"By my life, you know I won't." Persona pledged sincerely, meaning every word.

The man seemed to relax, "That is well..." he said, gazing into the diminishing ambers of the fireplace as he did so, "I will call for you in case another mission comes up."

"I understand... I beg your leave, council." Persona bowed his respect and was about to exit the room when the man spoke.

"Persona, do not fail me."

He halted in his walk, not sure what to make of the council's many-layered statement. But he managed a mutter in reply, "I will never attempt to do so... And you know that."

The dissolving alice wielder made his way out and never spared a glance back.

**-0-**

"_It's just as well that they do not know, huh..." _Persona was thinking, lost in his own thoughts as he watched from the administration building's rooftop the mortifying drop below. It was easily the highest building on the entire academy, and it had a breathtaking view of the whole place. The rooftop from his point of view was suddenly everything he saw, the world's view was his to plunder, as he glance at the grounds and everything else around him.

It all seemed like everything was veiled in a mirage of lies, that things weren't as they seem and the beautiful objects merely served as facades to conceal the ugly, scorned truth.

_"And it's just as well..." _he thought after considering it for a while, "_What a pity... They've been led on to believe in a beautifully crafted history of lies that told only half of what it meant." _he grunted in disgust. But it's not as if it was something he had control over.

_"The real history of this academy is more than just a bunch of workings of patriotism and idealism sewn together... Mischa and Ayne's involuntary purging had stirred those non-alice human traitors and they panicked. They finally grasped the true potential of the alice-users, and fearing another involuntary purging would ensue, they decided to build a place in guise of a haven for isolating purposes. That way, they can keep track of the academy, for their own benefit... The fools."_

Persona watched a feather alighted on the roof top's railing. It was a pure white feather, untainted and chaste. He touched it with his fingertips and it disintegrated into dark ashes that were later blown by the wind.

_"And yet who knows? It could change... Everything can change." _Persona's sight drifted to the setting sun from the east, casting off its golden glow on the surroundings as he continued to watch, entranced by the magic of nature. He was considering the tons of possibilities that lay wait to this academic institution... Already, there were acts of humanism being practiced in the academy, he noticed, though rebellions cannot be avoided. Kind deeds were carried out in service to the outside world, but there were always the ulterior motives to consider. Recently, academy graduates find most of their time to be of service to their common folk, though it won't be long before they gain the notion that has long since been practiced and choose which side to tread on. Still, so far, the good deeds outweighed the bad.

Hasn't it always been that way? The forces of Light conquer the Dark ones, and all shall be peaceful again? But this wasn't a fairytale.

The past and present were coexisting to form the future that holds the untold enigmas that even people like themselves cannot predict... And it all lay on their own hands to weave.

And so, perhaps...

In due time, Alice Academy will change its archaic principles, for the greater good.

Seeds of injustice were frequent and planted since then, but they can always be rooted out no matter how deep, bearing its scars on the ground on which it grew...

Perhaps, it just might. Or it might not. Heck, life was one complicated mix of gambling and forfeiting, if one is into believing in convictions and faith. For all he knows, fate can take a sudden drastic leap into another direction and affect countless lives. That's how changing these times were… And nothing was certain except for the principle he believed in.

Persona took one last look at the setting sun in all its glory, basking everything in its golden glow before everything would be blanketed by the shadow of the coming night. He knew his life was not about to end as he made his way down to the premises of the administration building with the last of the light lingering on his back.


End file.
